Word of the Day: June 14, 2009 - pendulum

pendulum (pen-juh-luhm) - noun

A pendulum is "a body suspended from a fixed support so that it swings freely back and forth under the influence of gravity, commonly used to regulate various devices, especially clocks."

First used in the written form around the year 1660. A pendulum is etymologically simply something that "hangs." It is a noun use of the neuter form of the Latin adjective pendulus, meaning "hanging" (source of English pendulous). This was a derivative of the verb pendere, meaning "to hang," which has contributed a wide range of words to English, among them penchant, pendant, pendent, pending, and penthouse.

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