What does the word pendant mean? Where does it come from?

The word pendant has origins that go all the way back to Proto-Indo European, the root language of all Indo- European languages. From this PIE root,"(s)pen(d)", meaning to pull or stretch, came the Latin "pendere" meaning to hang. This evolved to "pendant" in Old French meaning hanging, and then finally on to pendaunt in Ango-French, referring to a "loose or hanging part of anything" before being adopted into English as 'pendant'. The meaning of a "dangling part of an earring" was first recorded in 1555 and contributed to the current and most popular modern meaning, "an adornment or ornament that hangs from a piece of jewelry".

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