The English word 'pendant' entered the language around 1340, from Old French 'pendant,' the present participle of 'pendre' (to hang), which descended from Latin 'pendere' (to hang). The word is grammatically simple: it is the present participle ('hanging') used as a noun ('the hanging thing'). A pendant is, at its etymological core, simply something that hangs.
In Old French, 'pendant' had broad application. It could refer to anything suspended: a hanging lamp, a flag or pennant hanging from a mast, a tassel hanging from a cushion, or an ornament hanging from the body. When the word entered English, it gradually narrowed. By the fifteenth century, the primary English meaning was a piece of jewelry suspended from a
The architectural sense is particularly elegant. In Gothic and Renaissance architecture, a 'pendant' or 'pendant vault' features decorative stonework that hangs down from a ceiling or vault, defying gravity through engineering skill. The pendant bosses of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster Abbey (early sixteenth century) are among the finest examples: elaborate stone ornaments that appear to dangle from the ceiling, held in place by the interlocking forces of the fan vault.
The word 'pending' — so common in legal, business, and everyday English — is etymologically identical to 'pendant.' Both are the present participle of 'pendre/pendere': hanging. A legal case that is pending is hanging — suspended, not yet settled, dangling between possible outcomes. 'Patent pending' means the patent application is hanging in the system, awaiting decision. English borrowed
The French preposition 'pendant' (during, while) also derives from the same participle. 'Pendant la guerre' (during the war) literally means 'the war hanging' — while the war hangs, while it is suspended in progress. This temporal sense did not pass into English, which uses 'during' instead, but it demonstrates how versatile the image of hanging became in French.
The word 'pennant' (a long, narrow flag) is a variant of 'pendant' — a flag that hangs or flies from a mast. The spelling diverged in the seventeenth century, creating the appearance of two separate words from what was originally one. Similarly, 'penchant' (a strong inclination or liking) comes from French 'penchant' (leaning, inclining), from 'pencher' (to lean), which some etymologists connect to a Vulgar Latin form related to 'pendere' — the idea being that leaning is a kind of hanging, an inclination toward.
In modern usage, 'pendant' remains primarily a jewelry term. A pendant necklace, a pendant earring, a pendant charm — the word evokes elegance and adornment. But the broader meaning persists in technical contexts: pendant switches (electrical switches that hang on a cord), pendant lights (fixtures suspended from the ceiling), and in nautical terminology, where a pendant (sometimes spelled 'pennant') is a length of rope hanging from a mast or spar.
The word is a pure, undisguised fragment of the Latin verb 'pendere.' Where 'depend,' 'suspend,' 'append,' 'expend,' and 'impend' add prefixes that modify and redirect the root meaning, 'pendant' presents the root in its simplest form: that which hangs. It is the most literal member of its word family, the one that has changed least from its Latin origin, and the one that most clearly preserves the physical image — something suspended, swaying gently, held by a thread or chain against the pull of gravity.