Pendant

The Pedant's dilemma:

when one of the lesser people, exasperated with your punctilious and picky-pants demeanour, mistakenly calls you a pendant... which is the more appropriate course of action to pursue - to simply let the mistake slide and smirk to oneself or to correct their word choice, in the process confirming the intent of their utterance?

Really, what is playing on others' mistakes or ignorance for if not a spot of fun? I recommend you find a cord or fixture somewhere nearby from which you can dangle decoratively, all the while extolling your pendantly qualities. After you explain yourself chances are good they'll never misuse the word again, beyond which any excuse to hang about in public places is a good one to seize up.

Pend"ant (?), n. [F., orig. p.pr. of pendre to hang, L. pendere. Cf. Pendent, Pansy, Pensive, Poise, Ponder.]

1.

Something which hangs or depends; something suspended; a hanging appendage, especially one of an ornamental character; as to a chandelier or an eardrop; also, an appendix or addition, as to a book.

Some hang upon the pendants of her ear. Pope.

Many . . . have been pleased with this work and its pendant, the Tales and Popular Fictions. Keightley.

2. Arch.

A hanging ornament on roofs, ceilings, etc., much used in the later styles of Gothic architecture, where it is of stone, and an important part of the construction. There are imitations in plaster and wood, which are mere decorative features.

Spenser.

3. Fine Arts

One of a pair; a counterpart; as, one vase is the pendant to the other vase.

4.

A pendulum.

Sir K. Digby.

5.

The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended.

Knight.

Pendant post Arch., a part of the framing of an open timber roof; a post set close against the wall, and resting upon a corbel or other solid support, and supporting the ends of a collar beam or any part of the roof.

© Webster 1913.