pendent

English

This arch is stable as it stands, but all the voussoirs are pendent (3) and removal of any one of them would cause the structure to collapse

Pendent (3) structure in architecture: Binondo Church Dome with its pendentives

Etymology

From Middle English pendaunt, Anglo-Norman pendaunt, pendant, respelled to reflect Latin pendēns, pendentis, present participle of pendere (“to hang, to be suspended”). Compare pendant, which retained the spelling.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛndənt/
• Homophone: pendant

Adjective

pendent (comparative more pendent, superlative most pendent)

1. Dangling, drooping, hanging down or suspended.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 312–314:

     Now had they brought the work by wondrous Art / Pontifical, a ridge of pendent Rock / Over the vext Abyſs, […]

   • 1818, John Keats, “Book III”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 149, lines 932–935:

     Nectar ran / In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd; / And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd / New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; […]

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 71:

     The doctor's head [...] was framed in the golden semi-circle of a wig with long pendent curls that touched his shoulders […]

   • 1986, Bryant W Rossiter, Roger C Baetzold, Investigations of Surfaces and Interfaces:

     An interesting development has been the analysis of the image of a pendent drop by a video digitizer.

2. Pending (in various senses).
3. (architecture, of a structure) Either hanging in some sense, or constructed of multiple elements such as the voussoirs of an arch or the pendentives of a dome, none of which can stand on its own, but which in combination are stable.
4. (heraldry) Hanging or pointed downward; (of a crescent) with its horns pointing downward.
   • 1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:

     Jandrell, Sa. three buckles, the tongues pendent ar. two and a one.

   • 1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry: Dictionary of Heraldry, page 89:

     Az. a chev. or, betw. three acorns, pendent, Kymberlee.

   • 1844, John Burke, Bernard Burke, Encyclopædia of Heraldry, page 49:

     JAUDRILL. Ermines, three round buckles ar. tongues pendent.

   • 1981, Bruno Bernhard Heim, Armorial Bruno Bernard Heim, Colin Smythe:

     page 207: de CAMPO REAL: chequy Sable and Argent on a chief Gules a crescent pendent of the field.

5. (grammar, of a sentence) Incomplete in some sense, such as lacking a finite verb.
6. (obsolete) Projecting over something; overhanging.

Derived terms

• pendent jurisdiction
• pendently

Related terms

• pendentive

Translations

hanging down

• Bulgarian: висящ (bg) (visjašt)
• Latin: pendulus
• Maori: whakatāweru, hāwere, hauwere

Noun

pendent (plural pendents)

1. Alternative spelling of pendant

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pendentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pənˈden]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pənˈdent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [penˈdent]

Adjective

pendent m or f (masculine and feminine plural pendents)

1. pending, unresolved; waiting on
2. sloped, sloping, inclined

Noun

pendent m (plural pendents)

1. slope, incline

Further reading

• “pendent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pendent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “pendent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pendent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɑ̃d/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃d

Verb

pendent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of pendre

Latin

Verb

pendent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of pendō
2. third-person plural present active indicative of pendeō

Occitan

Pronunciation

• Audio (Béarn):

  (file)

Preposition

pendent

1. during

   Synonym: durant

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French pendant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.dɛnt/
• Rhymes: -ɛndɛnt
• Syllabification: pen‧dent

Noun

pendent m inan

1. baldric

Declension

Declension of pendent

	singular	plural
nominative	pendent	pendenty
genitive	pendentu	pendentów
dative	pendentowi	pendentom
accusative	pendent	pendenty
instrumental	pendentem	pendentami
locative	pendencie	pendentach
vocative	pendencie	pendenty

Further reading

• pendent in Polish dictionaries at PWN