What is "pendant"

Pendant \Pend"ant\, n. [F., orig. p. pr. of pendre to hang, L. pendere. Cf. Pendent, Pansy, Pensive, Poise, Ponder.]

1. Something which hangs or depends; something suspended; a hanging appendage, especially one of an ornamental character; as to a chandelier or an eardrop; also, an appendix or addition, as to a book.

   Some hang upon the pendants of her ear.
   --Pope.

   Many . . . have been pleased with this work and its pendant, the Tales and Popular Fictions.
   --Keightley.

2. (Arch.) A hanging ornament on roofs, ceilings, etc., much used in the later styles of Gothic architecture, where it is of stone, and an important part of the construction. There are imitations in plaster and wood, which are mere decorative features. ``[A bridge] with . . . pendants graven fair.''
   --Spenser.

3. (Fine Arts) One of a pair; a counterpart; as, one vase is the pendant to the other vase.

4. A pendulum. [Obs.]
   --Sir K. Digby.

5. The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended. [U.S.]
   --Knight.

   Pendant post (Arch.), a part of the framing of an open timber roof; a post set close against the wall, and resting upon a corbel or other solid support, and supporting the ends of a collar beam or any part of the roof.

early 14c., "loose, hanging part of anything," from Anglo-French pendaunt "hanging" (c.1300), Old French pendant (13c.), noun use of present participle of pendre "to hang," from Latin pendere "to hang," from PIE *(s)pend-, extended form of root *(s)pen- "to pull, draw, stretch" (see span (v.)). Meaning "dangling part of an earring" is attested from 1550s. Nautical sense of "tapering flag" is recorded from late 15c. "In this sense presumably a corruption of pennon" [OED].

n. 1 (context architecture English) A supporting post attached to the main rafter. (from 14th c.) 2 (context obsolete in the plural English) testicles. (15th-17th c.) 3 A piece of jewellery which hangs down as an ornament, especially worn on a chain around the neck. (from 15th c.) 4 (context nautical English) A short rope hanging down, used to attach hooks for tackles; a pennant. (from 15th c.) 5 The dangling part of an earring. (from 16th c.) 6 (context obsolete English) An appendix or addition, as to a book. 7 (context fine arts English) One of a pair; a counterpart. 8 (context obsolete English) A pendulum. 9 (context US English) The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended.

1. n. an adornment that hangs from a piece of jewelry (necklace or earring)

2. branched lighting fixture; often ornate; hangs from the ceiling [syn: chandelier]

The word pendant derives from the Latin word "pendere", and Old French word "pendre", both of which translate to "to hang down". It comes in the form of a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. In modern French "pendant" is the gerund form of “hanging” (also meaning “during”).Due to the extent to which the design of a pendant can be incorporated into an overall necklace it is nt always accurate to treat them as separate items. In some case though the separation between necklace and pendant is far clearer.

One of the earliest types of bodily adornment is a pendant, (a hanging ornament, as an earring or the main piece suspended from a necklace.) Attractive rocks Shells and other indigenous materials were used. In Ancient Egypt, Pharaohs normally wore scarab beetle pendants to symbolize their wealth and power. Royalty and nobility in Ancient Egypt also wore a certain type of pendant called a cartouche.

Pendants can have several functions, which may be combined:

• Award (i.e., Scouting Ireland Chief Scout's Award, Order of CúChulainn)
• Identification (i.e., religious symbols, sexual symbols, symbols of rock bands)
• Ornamentation
• Ostentation (i.e., jewels).
• Protection (i.e., amulets, religious symbols)
• Self-affirmation (i.e., initials, names)

The many specialized types of pendants include lockets which open, often to reveal an image, and pendilia, which hang from larger objects of metalwork.

Pendant means something that is hanging, and may refer to:

• Arresting gear, which use deck pendant cables to rapidly decelerate an aircraft as it lands on an aircraft carrier
• Nautical pendant a length of cable or rope with eyes or fittings at the ends for attachment to vessels, bollards or buoys
• Pendant bar, a fluvial landform formed on the downstream side of a weathering-resistant protrusion
• Pendant light, a type of light fixture that hangs from the ceiling on a rope, chain, cable or rod
• Pendant vault, a late Gothic architecture vault in which large decorative pendants hang from the vault at a distance from the walls
• Pendant vertex, a vertex whose neighbourhood contains exactly one vertex
• Pendant, a type of loose-hanging jewelry
• Pennant number, previously called a pendant number, a British Navy and Commonwealth system for classifying warships
• Roof pendant, a large, isolated mass of sedimentary or meta-sedimentary rock that survives within a mass of intrusive igneous rock
• Teach pendant, a portable control device used to program industrial robots