pendant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pendaunt,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pendaunt, pendant,^[5][2][6] the noun use of the present participle of pendre (“to hang”),^[5][2][7][3] which came through Vulgar Latin from Latin pendeō (“to hang, hang down”).^[2][4][3][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1300,^[5] and the verb from the 1130s.^[9] In French the noun already meant a hanging belt ornament in the late 11th century, a slope and the testicles in the 12th, and an ear ornament in 1346.^[6] The Latin verb is related to pendō (“to weigh, pay”) and pondus (“weight”),^[3][8][10] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend-, an extended form of *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[5][4] Surnames such as Rich. del Pendant (1274) may show the word earlier,^[2] though the OED takes them as Anglo-Norman rather than English.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In an open timber roof, a supporting post fixed to the hammerbeam or the principal rafter: 1359, in the sacrist rolls of Ely.^[6] Barnhart dates pendaunt, a hanging ornament, to 1323,^[2][11] and Etymonline gives the early 14th century for "a loose, hanging part of anything".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word covered anything that hangs.^[6][7] In building it named posts and carved bosses hanging from a vault or ceiling (1359, 1506);^[6][12] on clothing a jewel, bead or tassel hanging as an ornament, and the hanging end of a belt (both about 1400, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight);^[6] and in Middle English also the testicles, a sense that died out in the 17th century.^[6][5][7] On ships a pendant was a short rope hanging from a mast or yard (1420),^[6] and since the late 15th century a long tapering flag, which the OED thinks was first a confusion with pennon; the word for the flag is now usually pennant.^[5][6][13] The sense "the hanging part of an earring" is from 1555,^[6][5] and the jewel later came to hang mostly from a necklace.^[14][7] From the 18th century, after French, a pendant was also a match or counterpart to something,^[15][6] and since the mid 19th century a light hanging from the ceiling.^[14][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as a jewel hanging in the ear, or anything hanging as an ornament.^[16] A preposition pendant, "during", borrowed from French, appears once in 1642.^[6]

Timeline

• 1323 – pendaunt, a hanging ornament.^[2][11]
• 1359 – a supporting post in an open timber roof.^[6]
• before 1400 – plural, the testicles (obsolete by 1638).^[6]
• c. 1400 – a jewel or tassel hanging from clothing; the hanging end of a belt.^[6]
• 1420 – nautical, a short rope hanging from a mast or yard.^[6]
• late 15th century – a long tapering flag.^[5][15]
• 1506 – an ornamental boss hanging from a vault or ceiling.^[6]
• 1555 – the hanging part of an earring.^[6][5]
• 18th century – a match or counterpart.^[15]
• mid 19th century – a hanging light.^[7][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ornament or jewel that hangs from a chain worn around the neck, or from an earring; also the necklace itself: a silver pendant set with an opal.^[10][3]
2. A lamp or light fitting hanging from the ceiling, such as a chandelier.^[10][3][7]
3. (architecture) A carved ornament or boss projecting downwards from a vault, ceiling or roof.^[10][3][6]
4. Something that matches or complements another thing; a counterpart.^[10][15]
5. (nautical) A short rope or wire hanging from a mast or spar, with a block or other fitting at its lower end; also, a pennant.^[10][6]
6. (obsolete, before 1400–1638) In the plural, the testicles.^[6][7]

Adjective

1. A variant spelling of pendent, hanging.^[10][5]

Word family

• pendanted
• pendantlike

Related words

• penchant
• pendent
• pennant
• pennon
• pending
• pendulum
• pendulous
• suspend
• depend
• pound

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.