Panama

How to spell panama

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce panama

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does panama mean?

1. nounA lightweight brimmed hat woven from fine straw, traditionally worn in hot weather.

Panama in a sentence

• He wore a cream panama to shield his eyes during the cricket match.

• She packed a folding panama for the beach holiday.

Where does panama come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word comes straight from the name of the Central American isthmus and country of Panama, a name that most scholars trace to an indigenous Cueva or Guarani term commonly glossed as 'abundance of fish' or 'a place of many fish and butterflies'. The lightweight straw hat that carries the name was not actually made there; it was woven in Ecuador from the fibres of the toquilla palm, then shipped north and sold to travellers passing through the busy trading port of Panama, so buyers naturally called it a 'panama' after the place they bought it. The label stuck fast in the 1800s and was cemented when workers and engineers on the Panama Canal were photographed wearing them. Because the word is a borrowed place name rather than a native English formation, its spelling simply mirrors the country's name, with the three plain a vowels that catch people out when said quickly. The same name lives on in the canal, the hat, and the lightweight cloth, all named for the strip of land between two oceans.

How the word is built

• panama (from the place name Panama, used attributively for the hat once exported through it)