Is an interesting way to describe cooking lentils, too. I can imagine sautéing ones that are already cooked. Or you can put them in a pan with water for awhile, but that's gonna be 20-40 minutes, is pan-boiling a term? Not really sautéing.
Confused. What else would you boil them in? (Brit here so maybe there's a language difference at play)
Rough disambiguation: Frying pan - shallow with single long handle Sauce pan - deeper with single handle Pot - deeper with two loop handles
A pan has short, usually curved sides, and is suitable for simmering small amounts of liquid, searing or frying. It will almost always have a single long handle.
Woks are the exception- the look halfway in-between a pot and a pan, though the design is more geared towards the same uses you would use a pan for. Although there are two small handled varieties, the thinness of the metal makes it much less effective at stews and soups because it doesn't hold heat well.
"Saucepans are round, vertical-walled vessels used for simmering or boiling. Saucepans generally have one long handle. Larger pans of similar shape with two ear handles are sometimes called "sauce-pots" or "soup pots" (3–12 litres)." [1]