Etymology: < Anglo-Norman pautener, pautenier (second half of the 12th cent.; c1170 as paltener ; compare Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French pautonier (c1150 as paltonier )) < an unattested Old Dutch or Old Saxon cognate of Middle Low German palte piece, cloth (compare the list of cognates cited at paltry adj.) + Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French -on (see -oon suffix) + Anglo-Norman -er , Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French -ier -er suffix². Compare ( < French) Old Occitan pautoner , pautonier (c1150 as patuner ), post-classical Latin paltenerius (c1220 in a British source), Catalan †paltuner (late 14th cent.), all in sense ‘rogue, beggar’, Italian †paltoniere rascal (a1431 or earlier in this sense; mid 14th cent. or earlier in sense ‘beggar’; compare paltone rascal, villain (a1306), probably an early back-formation), and also Middle Dutch pautenier vagrant, beggar, rascal, scoundrel, Middle Low German poltenēre vagrant, beggar, Middle High German paltenaere , paltener , paltenēre vagrant, beggar, pedlar. For the semantic development compare German Lump rascal, scoundrel and Lumpen rag (see lump n.¹).An older etymology, now generally rejected, derived the word from an unattested derivative of classical Latin pālitārī (Plautus), frequentative of pālārī to wander up and down. Earlier currency of the word is implied by the place name Pautenergate (1288), the name of a street in the parish of St Faith in Newland, in the city of Lincoln. For scribal or later editorial misreadings of n for u in the present word see pantener n. and adj.

Etymology: Either < Italian paltoniera beggar's pouch or knapsack (a1353; spec. use of feminine form corresponding to †paltoniere : see pautener n.¹), or < Middle French pautonniere purse (although this is first attested later: 1419; French †pautonniere (1611 in Cotgrave; now regional (Bresse) pautenēre )), spec. use of feminine form corresponding to pautonier (see pautener n.¹). Compare post-classical Latin pautoneria beggar's wallet (c1290 in a British source), Catalan †pautonera (1363), and also ( < French) Middle Dutch pautenier, pauteniere.