Pendant
A pendant (from Old French) is a hanging object, generally attached to a necklace or an earring. In modern French this is a word meaning “during” (also the gerund form of "hanging"). Pendants have several purposes:
- ornamentation
- identification (i.e. religious symbols, sexual symbols, symbols of rock bands)
- protection (i.e. amulets, religious symbols)
- self-affirmation (i.e. initials, names)
- ostentation (i.e. jewels).
These purposes can be combined (i.e. a richly jewelled symbol). |
