Panhandler - for word lovers.

I have discovered that the origin of the term "panhandler" is not what the dictionary tells you.

It's actually a San Francisco term from the Gold Rush days. The term was tied to restaurant-owner Mink Dusenhoffer, who used the term in an angry public notice, warning them to stay away.

The original Panhandlers were unemployed men who had sought their fortune by panning for gold, but resorted to begging or worse when their fortunes were not found.

The origins of the word Panhandler is detailed in the book, American Myths and Legends Volume II, by Charles M. Skinner, J.B. Lipincott Company, Philadelphia & London, pub. Oct 1903. //// My personal interest in this word. My great great grandfather Josef Waizmann (born ca. 1803) was born in Pfannenstiel, near Aalen Germany, in present-day Baden-Wuerttemberg. Pfannenstiel means "panhandle" in English. The people in this village were populated by Yenish / Jenisch, a poor and unassimilated nomadic people with a reputation for thieving and begging. Later, Nazi German leadership compared them to gypsies. So, I when I had read of Mink Dusenhoffer, a German-American warning off "the panhandlers" in San Francisco, I thought there might be a connection, but that does not seem to be the case. Back in Germany, "Pfannestiel" refers to the local geographic area; it has no connection with the 1849 Gold Rush in San Fracisco.