pennon

Meanings

1. A long, narrow flag or streamer, often swallowtailed or triangular, usually hung at the top of a helmet or lance, originally the ensign of a knight under the rank of knight banneret, and later of a lancer regiment.
2. Any banner or flag.
3. Synonym of pinion (“a wing”).
4. A heraldic charge in the form of a pennon (sense 1).
5. Synonym of pennant (“a flag or streamer used on a ship”).
6. A Knight Bachelor; also, a soldier who carries an ensign.
7. An ornament that dangles or hangs down.
8. Something resembling a pennon (sense 1).

Etymology

From Late Middle English pennon, penoun (“long narrow flag attached to a lance or used in other contexts; one who bears a pennon, knight bachelor; plume of feathers; strip around the edge of a shield”), from Anglo-Norman penun (“feather of an arrow”), penoun (“flag attached to a lance”), Middle French pennon, penoun, and Old French penon (“flag attached to a lance”) (modern French pennon), from penne (“feather; wing”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Penne is inherited from Latin penna (“feather (especially a flight feather), pinion; wing”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly (in the sense of spreading out wings)”).