Dictionary

bannock en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbæ.nək/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin pānicumder. Old Irish bannachder. Old English bannuc Middle English bannoke English bannock From Middle English bannoke, from Old English bannuc, perhaps from a Goidelic word (compare Irish bonnóg, Manx bonnag, Scottish Gaelic bonnach), possibly from Latin pānicum (“millet”). Doublet of bonnag.

Meanings

1. (Northern-England, Scotland, especially, uncountable, usually) An unleavened bread, usually made with barleymeal, wheatmeal, or oatmeal; sometimes of peasemeal or otherwise.
   • "It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they repeated the rhyme Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop, And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend! three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fourth furrow." 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 353:
   • So she baked two oatmeal bannocks, and set them on to the fire to harden. After a while, the old man came in, and sat down beside the fire, and takes one of the bannocks, and snaps it through the middle. 1894, Joseph Jacobs, “More English Fairy Tales”, in The Wee Bannock, D. Nutt:
2. (Canada, uncountable, usually) A biscuit bread made of wheat flour or cornmeal, fat, and sometimes baking powder, typically baked over a fire, wrapped around a stick or in a pan.
   • My father’s bannock was nothing but lard, flour, salt, and baking powder patted into big rounds and cooked on sticks over a campfire. 2007, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Turtle Valley, Vintage Canada, →ISBN, page 54:
   • “The boats are coming!” The cry rang through the village. Women left their bannock-baking, their basketweaving and hurried to the shore. 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 8, in Klee Wyck:
3. (Canada, specifically, uncountable, usually) A biscuit bread made of wheat flour or cornmeal, fat, and sometimes baking powder, typically baked over a fire, wrapped around a stick or in a pan. ▸ This or any similar traditional bread when made by indigenous Americans, originally from native sources such as maize or pseudocereals and plants with starchy roots

Forms

Deriveds

currant-bannock · bannock puncher

Relateds

dog bread · frybread

Synonyms

skaan · Indian bread · alatiq

Translations (7)

crk pahkwêsikan (Indigenous Canadian breads) · fr beigne (Indigenous Canadian breads) · gd breacag (English/Scottish bread) · gd bonnach (English/Scottish bread) · fr galette (Indigenous Canadian breads) · atj e ocihakaniwitc pakwecikan (Indigenous Canadian breads) · fr bannique (English/Scottish bread)