pennon

American  

[pen-uhn] / ˈpɛn ən /

noun

1. a distinctive flag in any of various forms, as tapering, triangular, or swallow-tailed, formerly one borne on the lance of a knight.

2. a pennant.

3. any flag or banner.

4. a wing or pinion.

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pennon British  

/ ˈpɛnən /

noun

1. a long flag, often tapering and rounded, divided, or pointed at the end, originally a knight's personal flag

2. a small tapering or triangular flag borne on a ship or boat

3. a poetic word for wing

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpennoned
  adjective
• pennoned
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of pennon

1325–75; Middle English penon < Middle French, augmentative of Old French pene < Latin penna or pinna feather. See pen ¹

Example Sentences

Sir Robert now stood before them, revealed not as a knight in glittering plate armor with pennon flying from his lance, but as what he had been all along: a grave, punctilious, honest lawyer.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2019

They brought with them a gift for the Belgian Society of Napoleonic Studies: a pennon of the Imperial Guard, carried from the battlefield 138 years ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

All alike called her their love, each one wore her favour, whether ring or sleeve or pennon, and each cried her name in the tourney.

From Tales from the Old French by Various

A little northward, great yellowish piles of lumber loomed, tier after tier, with big sloops moored beside them, and with one acute red pennon, on one slim mast, blown out bright against the darkening air.

From An Ambitious Woman A Novel by Fawcett, Edgar

The principal varieties of flags borne during the middle ages were the pennon, the banner and the standard.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre" by Various