▪ I. pennant1
(ˈpɛnənt)
[app. a compromise between pendant and pennon, representing the usual nautical pronunciation of these words, of which it is now the most usual form.]
1. a. = pendant n. 7; a rigging pendant.
| 1611 Cotgr., Palenc, the Pennant; a rope which helpes to hoise vp the boat, and all heauie marchandise, aboord a ship. 1658 Phillips, Pendants in a Ship, are short ropes made fast at one end either to the head of the mast or to a yard, or to the clew of a sail. 1755 Johnson, Pennant,..a tackle for hoisting things on board. 1841 Dana Seaman's Man., Pendant, or Pennant, a rope to which a purchase is hooked. A long strap..with a hook or block at the other end, for a brace to reeve through, or to hook a tackle to. |
b. (See pendant 7 b.)
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Irish pennants, rope-yarns hanging about on the rigging. Loose reef-points or gaskets flying about, or fag-ends of ropes. |
2. a. = pendant n. 9, pennon 3: see quot. 1867.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 1 His Majesty, Charles II, was pleased to grant Letters of Mart: Which impowered them to wear the King's Jack, Ancient, and Pennant, and to act as Men of War. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 213 A small..vessel, under Spanish colours, pennant flying. 1755 Johnson, Pennant (pennon, Fr.), a small flag, ensign or colours. 1816 ‘Quiz’ Grand Master i. 24 A pennant at the peak appears, To shew the fleet they're at their pray'rs. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pennant, a long narrow banner with St. George's cross in the head, and hoisted at the main. It is the badge of a ship-of-war. Signal pennants are 9 feet long, tapering from 2 feet at the mast to 1 foot... Broad pennant denotes a commodore, and is a swallow-tailed flag, the tails tapering. 1872 [see b]. 1895 Funk's Stand. Dict., Pennant,..a small flag..flown during the performance on a naval vessel of some public function; as, a church-pennant, meal-pennant, etc. |
b. = pennon 1. Also fig.
| 1815 Paris Chit-chat (1816) I. 26 Myriads of pennants and white flags..floated in the air. 1863 Baring-Gould Iceland 105 He put up the little pennant which adorned the tent top. 1872 Preble Hist. Flag (1880) 11 A squire's mark was a long pennant similar to the coach-whip pennant of modern ships of war. 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. xiii. 374 Quivering flaming pennants of flame. |
c. N. Amer. Sport. A flag symbolizing a league championship; hence, the championship itself. Also attrib.
| 1880 N. Brooks Fairport Nine 188 Bill Hetherington..was entrusted with the championship pennant. 1886 Outing Aug. 572/2 Questions by the dozen come in..in regard to the probable issue of the pennant races in the professional arena. 1915 Lit. Digest 21 Aug. 360/3 The Cincinnati Reds..have never yet won a pennant. Ibid., The New York Giants..are not often far from the pennant class. 1924 [see cinch v. 2 b]. 1947 Partisan Rev. XIV. 258 The funeral was the most serious event of Samuel's life,..but this did not prevent him from getting the evening paper when the family returned from the cemetery and studying the final scores in the major league pennant races. 1967 W. S. Avis et al. Dict. Canad. Eng., Senior Dict. 821/2 Pennant... 2 any flag taken as emblem of superiority or success, especially in an athletic contest. 1971 L. Koppett N.Y. Times Guide Spectator Sports i. 35 The pennant winner in each league turned out to be the team with the best regular-season record. 1975 New Yorker 22 Sept. 98/2 The Los Angeles Dodgers have won five pennants and three World Series since their relocation. |
3. Mus. A hook of a quaver, semiquaver, etc.: = hook n.1 10 c. U.S.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 in Funk's Stand. Dict. |
4. Comb., as pennant-bearer; pennant-ship: see quot.
| 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xx, Then must the pennant-bearer slacken sail, That lagging barks may make their lazy way. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Wd.-bk., Pennant-ship, generally means the commodore, and vessels in the employ of government. |
▪ II. pennant2
(ˈpɛnnænt)
[a. Welsh pennant, lit. ‘dale-head’, f. pen(n) head + nant valley; also a frequent place-name in Wales.]
Now usually pennant grit: the name applied to an unproductive series of gritty strata lying between the Upper and Lower Coal-measures in South Wales, whence extended to analogous strata in the Bristol Coalfield. Also pennant flag, pennant rock, pennant stone.
| 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 224 This bath was paved with pennant flag..a stone that divides into slates of about two inches thick. 1769 Strachey in Phil. Trans. XXX. 972 A Rock of Paving-Stone, call'd Penant,..which Rock is sometime twenty Feet thick, or more. 1792 Gentl. Mag. LXII. i. 222 The stone of these two crosses is of a very hard and durable kind, usually called pennant, of a close gritty nature, and dug every where in the mountainous parts of Glamorgan. 1876 Woodward Geol. E. Somerset & Bristol Coalfields 31 [The Coal Measures] are divided into three series, an Upper productive Coal Series, a Middle and nearly unproductive series called the Pennant Grit, and a Lower productive series. 1886 Jukes-Browne Hist. Geol. 186 The Pennant Grits. This series..forms the fine range of escarpments, which enclose the central table land of the county [Glamorgan]. 1888 Prestwich Geol. II. 95. |