pennant

Etymology

It is probably a blend, formed from English pendant + pennon.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} The revised OED (2005) treats it as originally a variant of pendant, now kept apart in form in these senses, probably partly through association with pennon or its source, Middle French pennon;^[9] Merriam-Webster likewise calls it an alteration of pendant influenced by pennon.^[10][11] The OED notes that in early use the flag sense is very hard to tell apart from pendant, and places here the examples without a medial -d-.^[9] Etymonline records pendant for a long tapering flag from the late 15th century.^[3] Pendant is from Old French pendant (“hanging”), the present participle of pendre (“to hang”), from Latin pendeō (“to hang”);^[4][3] pennon is from Old French penon (“feathers of an arrow; streamer, banner”), from penne (“feather”), from Latin penna (“feather”).^[4][3][8] Klein compares Spanish pendón (“pennant”).^[12] Johnson (1755) derived the word from French pennon.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long, tapering or swallow-tailed flag: about 1470, in an English translation of a French Bible by D'Argenteuil, where the French source has panoncel.^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline begin with Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, where it is a rope hanging from a ship's mast, used for hoisting.^[14][3]

Semantic evolution

The rigging sense, a rope or tackle for hoisting, lasted from 1611 to 1841.^[9] Johnson (1755) still gave both a small flag and a tackle for hoisting things on board.^[13] The flag of a warship, used for signalling or identification, is recorded from 1698, in John Fryer's account of the East Indies and Persia;^[9][14][3] the Shorter Oxford notes that the general sense of a pennon was rare before the early 19th century,^[15] and Etymonline dates the use for a flag much longer in the fly than in the hoist to 1815.^[3] In North American sport a pennant became the flag of a league championship, first recorded in 1865 in the New York Times according to the OED,^[9] in 1880 according to Barnhart and Etymonline, especially in baseball;^[14][3] by 1915 it also meant the championship itself, as in "win the pennant".^[14][3] Collins records this use as chiefly American, Canadian and Australian, with the attributive pennant cricket.^[6] A rare American sense, the hook on the stem of a quaver or semiquaver, appears in the Century Dictionary of 1890.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1470 – a long, tapering or swallow-tailed flag.^[9][15]
• 1611 – a rope or tackle for hoisting on a ship (obsolete by 1841).^[9][14][3]
• 1698 – a tapering flag used on a ship for signalling or identification.^[9][14][3]
• 1815 – a flag much longer in the fly than in the hoist.^[3]
• 1865 – a flag symbolizing a league championship.^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1880.^[14][3]
• 1890 – in music, the hook of a quaver (rare).^[9]
• 1915 – the championship itself.^[14][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, narrow, tapering or swallow-tailed flag flown on ships for signalling or identification.^{[10][16][6][9]}
2. A flag of similar shape used as an emblem, for example of a school or team; a pennon.^[16][11][6]
3. A flag awarded to the winner of a sports league, especially in baseball; also the championship itself: The club clinched the pennant in late September.^{[16][11][6][9]}
4. (nautical) Another word for a pendant in a ship's rigging.^[10][6]

Word family

• Irish pennant
• answering pennant

Related words

• pennon
• pendant
• pendent

Usage notes

A second noun pennant, more fully pennant grit, names a series of grit and sandstone strata between the upper and lower coal measures of South Wales and the Bristol area, used for paving; the OED records it from 1669 and the Shorter Oxford from the mid-18th century.^[9][15] Its origin is uncertain: the OED suggests the place name Pennant, common in Wales and also found in south-western England, or an alteration of pendant, and thinks a direct derivation from Welsh pennant (“upland, head of a valley”) unlikely on semantic grounds,^[9] while the Shorter Oxford derives it from Welsh pen (“head”) and nant (“brook, valley”).^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin