pendulous

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pendulus (“pendant”), from pendeō (“to hang”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛndjʊləs/, /ˈpɛndʒʊləs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛndʒələs/, /ˈpɛndjələs/
• Hyphenation: pen‧du‧lous

Adjective

pendulous (comparative more pendulous, superlative most pendulous)

1. Hanging from, or as if from, a support.

   Synonym: suspended

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 103:

     The prehistorian Andre Leroi-Gourhan has identified it as "a woman holding a bison horn." With her large pendulous breasts, great stomach, and immense hips, this Paleolithic Madonna is of a type found with countless other figurines in excavations from Spain to the Soviet Union.

2. Indecisive or hesitant
3. (biology) Having branches etc. that bend downwards; drooping or weeping

Derived terms

• pendulous abdomen
• pendulously
• pendulousness

Related terms

• pendant
• pendulum

Translations

hanging down

• Bulgarian: висящ (bg) (visjašt), увиснал (bg) (uvisnal)
• Finnish: riippuva (fi), roikkuva (fi)
• Latin: pendulus
• Māori: hāwere, hauwere
• Polish: zwisający, wiszący
• Spanish: péndulo (es)