[French, printer's error (in the first edition of Victor Hugo's Les Orientales (1829), which discussed the pantoum and began its popularization in French poetry) for pantoun, from Malay pantun, quatrain with a deliberately indirect allusive connection between the first couplet and the last, pantoum, perhaps from Krama (ceremonial form of Javanese in which words are phonetically deformed by adding nasals to the end of syllables), from Javanese pari, phrase, comparison, perhaps ultimately short for Sanskrit paribhāṣya-, (thing) to be stated, defined, or taught, from paribhāṣate, to explain, define : pari-, around; see per¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + bhāṣate, to speak.]