Pendant

Not to be confused with pendent, pennant (disambiguation), or pedant.

Spanish pendant at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Indonesian pendants

A pendant (from Old French) word "pendre" and the Latin word "pendere" which means "to hang down" is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, when the ensemble 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”).

One of the earliest types of bodily adornment is the pendant. Primeval man liked to put a tiny hole in a beautiful rock and slip a string usually made of grass or vine so it could be hung around the neck. Shells and other indigenous materials could also be used. In Ancient Egypt, Pharaohs normally wore scarab beetle pendants to symbolize their wealth and power. Royalty and nobility in Egypt also wear 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.

Other meanings

• A teach pendant is a portable control device used in industrial robotics.
• A cable pendant is one of a series of cables that is horizontally suspended across a flight deck of aircraft carriers for aircraft to land by catching with tailhook.
• A nautical pendant is a length of cable or rope, usually of a short length, that has eyes or fittings, or both, at the ends for attachment to vessels and bollards or buoys.
• A pendant is a common item used in hypnosis.
• Pendant vertex, a vertex whose neighbourhood contains exactly one vertex
• A pendant light is a hanging light fitting.
• Pendant objects are two or more aesthetic objects (usually art pieces such as paintings or sculptures) made to be perceived as a set. One such aesthetic object is a pendant necklace.

References

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