High pan loaf

[JRB]

I was very amused to hear this expression used recently in a TV show - it took me right back to my childhood! It means specifically to talk "posh" or, more generally, to pretend to be better than you are. However I'd love to know how the expression came to be and can find no explanation in several searches. Can anyone help?

[Quizmonster]

A pan loaf - I've never heard of the 'high' version - was more expensive than other loaves and so buying one was seen as a sign of greater wealth. Thus, it took on the meaning of speaking 'posh'.

[heathfield]

Pronounced 'hay pen loaf' by residents of Morningside (Edinburgh) and Kelvinside (Glasgow) who used this affected accent to impress on others how high class (hey class) they were. 'The two trem kers collayded with a terrible smesh!'

[Quizmonster]

Yes, H, and Morningsiders thought 'sex' meant what their coal was delivered in!

[valerieb1254]

LOL @ Quizmonster

[THECORBYLOON]

I've not heard it called "high" pan loaf either.

[Quizmonster]

The 'high' one must be a more 'southerly' Scottish version than the one we know, TCL! One of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase in the sense used here refers specifically to Forfar, so it may well have originated north of the Tay.

[JRB]

You may have a point Quizmonster. I come from near Edinburgh and the programme I heard the expression used on was "Taggart" (Glasgow). I have heard it shortened to either "pan loaf" or "high pan", the latter definitely a Morningside expression! Thanks for the info - as I said it caused me much amusement and nostalgia.

[elephanto]

This has made me chuckle and bring back memories of my childhood in Scotland. We had an auntie a bit like Mrs Bucket! who always asked for a "co-operative pan loaf". I loved the trem cers and the sex. Totty peelings in the bucket was another one.

[Carol Anne]

The origins as far as I recall was of the introduction of the american pan-loaf in the 50's, the name coming fron the american style pan that it was baked in which we all know as the soft white sandwich loaf of today. In those days the only wrapped loaf you could buy in Scotland was the course 'plain' with it's thick ends and high baked crust. Not at all designed for genteel sandwiches or 'efternoon tea. Now instead of going to your high-class baker for a soft white loaf, and sliced thinly just for you, it could now conveniently be bought in the shops, but at a higher cost than 'plain'. so to be seen buying pan loaf would set you up the social scale somewhat.

[Eurydice]

We used to say, "Affy pan loafy", when describing a wannabe attempting to climb the social ladder, in Dundee.

[Quizmonster]

Ah, so there's another example from north of the Tay minus the 'high' element. In my third response above, I referred to Forfar and here is that earliest recorded use of the idea I spoke of. It's from Tales o' the Toonie by D Twitter, published in 1946.

"I warned Sarah Amelia no' tae start speakin' pan-loafy fin I wiz wi' 'er. She thrapit doon my thrapple that if I spak braid Farfar fowk wid tak me for a Turk."

Of the six further instances cited by The Oxford English Dictionary, not one has 'high' in it. I'm becoming more and more convinced, not that we northerners dropped the 'high', but that the southerners added it! Whatever...I love the idea of a Forfar man being mistaken for a Turk!