Panhandle

A panhandle or salient is an informal geographic term for an elongated tail-like protrusion of a geo-political entity, such as an administrative division or a sovereign state that extends into another such entity as a peninsula extends into the sea. The former "folksy" term derives from the analogous part of a cooking pan and its use is generally confined to the United States. A term used elsewhere is salient, derived from military salients. A panhandle is similar to a peninsula in shape, but unlike a peninsula it is not surrounded by water on three sides (but may have water on one or two sides, like Florida's panhandle) and connected to a geographical mainland, but is a land region surrounded on three sides by land regions not of the same jurisdiction. Instead, a panhandle is delimited by a land border on at least two sides and extends out from the larger geographical body of the administrative unit. The panhandle shape is the result of arbitrarily drawn international or subnational boundaries, although the location of some administrative borders takes into account other considerations such as economic ties or topography. The state of Missouri has a protrusion with a less elongated shape, which is informally called the bootheel. Tallahassee, Florida is the largest city of any panhandle in the United States of America

The six Northwest Cook County, Illinois townships.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway was often called the Panhandle, as it crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
San Francisco, (California) Panhandle

Panhandles outside the United States

Outside of the United States, the term is not in common usage, with the arguable exception of the nearby New Brunswick Panhandle. Nonetheless, some people would describe the following characteristic territorial protrusions elsewhere as a corridor or an arm extending into an administratively different territory. Such shapes of territory can be a result of linguistic (or ethnic) lines, in addition to geographic features and other reasons.

Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan
The states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg together comprise the "panhandle" of Austria
Karakoram, Pakistan
Misiones, Argentina
Teknaf, Bangladesh
Triângulo Mineiro, Brazil
Far North Province, Cameroon
Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia, Canada
New Brunswick Panhandle, New Brunswick, Canada
Enontekiö, Finland
Western Thrace, Greece
Petén, Guatemala
Seven Sister States, India
Donegal, Republic of Ireland
Monaghan, Republic of Ireland
Batken, Kyrgyzstan
Tenasserim, Myanmar
Province of Trieste, Italy
Hatay Province, Turkey
Caprivi Strip, Namibia
Limburg, the Netherlands
Congo Pedicle, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Polish Corridor, Poland
North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang, together comprise the "panhandle" of North Korea.
Southern Thailand, Thailand
Finger of the Galilee, Israel
Gladbeck, district Recklinghausen

Translation

The word "Panhandle" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Simple English.

Translation(s) in other languages: Esperanto: Patotenilo (geografio), Korean: 땅거스러미, Portuguese: Cabo de frigideira.