Literary notes about pendent (AI summary)
The term "pendent" in literature is employed to evoke vivid images of things that hang or dangle, often imbuing the description with a sense of suspension or fragility. In many instances, it is used to portray natural beauty, such as the delicate, hanging bell-shaped blossoms on a spring flower ([1]) or the fine, suspended leaves of a birch tree ([2]). The word also appears in heraldic and emblematic contexts, serving to enhance visual and symbolic details—as seen when describing jewels or badges that hang from a shield ([3], [4], [5], [6]). Moreover, "pendent" can convey a dramatic, almost mystical quality, whether referencing a luminous arc of light dangling below a thumb ([7]) or the ethereal, chandelier-like crystals in a high-ceilinged room ([8]). Thus, across a range of contexts—from nature to myth, and tangible to metaphorical—the use of "pendent" enriches the imagery by highlighting elements that are elegantly suspended or dependent.
- They are quite hardy, and flower in the spring, bearing clusters of pendent bell-shaped flowers surrounded with tufts of fresh green leaves.
— from Gardening for the Million by Alfred Pink - Birch ( Betula ), is known by all on account of its chalk-white bark, and its fine, pendent leaves.
— from The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - "Or, a file gules, with three bells pendent azure, clappers sable. (Belfile.)
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - A Scottish Herald is entitled to do the same, and has also his badge, which he places below the escutcheon pendent from a ribbon of blue and white.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - In 1294 the seal of the Dauphin Jean , son of Humbert I. , bears the arms of Dauphiné pendent from the neck of a griffon.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - —Arms of Arbroath: Gules, a portcullis with chains pendent or.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - It was looped about the tips of her two upright thumbs; part of it had slipped through the palms and flashed like a pendent arc of light below.
— from The Mettle of the Pasture by James Lane Allen - Her white figure seemed shaped in snow; the pendent crystals of a great chandelier clicked above her head like glittering icicles.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad