Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PAN'I-CLE, n. [L. panicula, down upon reeds, cat's tail, allied to L. pannus, cloth; W. pân, nap, down, the fulling of cloth; panu, to cover with nap, to full or mill cloth, to beat, to bang. The primary sense is to drive, strike or press, hence to full or make thick.]

In botany, a species of inflorescence, in which the flowers or fruits are scattered on peduncles variously subdivided, as in oats and some of the grasses. The panicle is of various kinds, as the dense or close, the spiked, the squeezed, the spreading, the diffused, the divaricating. – Martyn.