pennon

noun

1. (historical)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.

   “Her yellovv lockes criſped, like golden vvyre, / About her ſhoulders vveren looſely ſhed, / And vvhen the vvinde emongſt them did inſpyre, / They vvaued like a penon vvyde diſpred / And lovv behinde her backe vvere ſcattered: […]”

   “High on his pointed lance his Pennon bore / His Cretan Fight, the conquer'd Minotaure: […]”

   “The pennon vvas the proper enſign of a bachelor or ſimple knight. Du Freſne ſhevvs that even eſquires might bear pennons, provided they could bring a ſufficient ſuite of vaſſals into the field.”

   “[I]n spite of a sort of screen intended to protect them from the wind, the flame of the torches streamed sideways into the air, like the unfurled pennon of a chieftain.”

   “He has quarrelled with his neighbours, he has scourged his foes; / Vassal counts and princes follow where his pennon goes, / Long-descended valiant lords whom the vulture knows, […]”

2. (broadly)Any banner or flag.

   “Ceſar perceyuing the camp of hys enemyes to be empty, rolled vp his banners, and hid the penons and anteſignes of his ſouldiers, and conueying hys ſouldiers by ſlender companies out of hys greater camp into the leſſer, to thentent [the intent] it ſhould not be perceiued out of the towne, […]”

   “Barre Harry England, that ſvveepes through our Land / VVith Penons painted in the blood of Harflevv: / Ruſh on his Hoaſt, as doth the melted Snovv / Vpon the Valleyes, vvhoſe lovv Vaſſal Seat, / The Alpes doth ſpit, and void his rhevvme vpon.”

   “[S]he has spread out that vile pennon or banner of womankind, like all the rest of her sex, to allure her votaries to death and headlong ruin.”

   “Precisely in the middle of the quadrangle were placed perpendicularly in the ground, a hundred or more slender, fresh-cut poles, stripped of their bark, and decorated at the end with a floating pennon of white tappa; the whole being fenced about with a little picket of canes. For what purpose these singular ornaments were intended I in vain endeavoured to discover.”

   “There were about ten others [pavilions], all in divers hues, with their pennons fluttering from tall Venetian masts.”

3. (archaic, broadly, poetic)Synonym of pinion (“a wing”).

   “[S]odainly there descended before him, as his face was bent towards the earth, an Angell, whose wings had glorious Pennons, and whose face glistered as the beames of the Sunne, […]”

   “Fluttring his pennons vain plumb dovvn he [Satan] drops / Ten thousand fadom deep, […]”

   “Favonius gentle ſkims along the Grove, / And ſheds ſvveet Odors from his Pennons light.”

   “And hark! I hear the famish'd brood of prey / Flap their lank pennons on the groaning wind!”

   “Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen! / Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air; / Their filmy pennons at her word they furl, / And stop obedient to the reins of light: […]”

4. (broadly)A heraldic charge in the form of a pennon (sense 1).
5. (broadly)Synonym of pennant (“a flag or streamer used on a ship”).

   “Lincolne a Ship moſt neatly that vvas lim'd, / In all her Sailes vvith Flags and Pennons trim'd.”

   “Fair Commerce vvav'd her pennons in our ports; / The fertile plough ſubdu'd our ſterile fields; / Our granaries, like thoſe of Egypt, drevv / From neighb'ring countries, riches and renovvn.”

   “[A]s his eye swept the horizon, clear against the rosy sky shone the white sails of a ship, so near that they could see the pennon at her mast-head and black figures moving on the deck.”

6. (broadly, obsolete)A Knight Bachelor; also, a soldier who carries an ensign.

   “The Duke of Brabant had .xxiiij. Banners and .lxxx. Pennons, and in all, .vij. thouſand men.”

   “Surely he [George Purient] vvas a man of merit, being Penon or Enſign-bearer to one Eſquire, of the body to three ſucceſſive Kings, and M[aste]r of the Horſe to one of their Queens, to vvhom his vvife vvas chief Lady of Honour.”

7. (broadly, obsolete, rare)An ornament that dangles or hangs down.
8. (figuratively)Something resembling a pennon (sense 1).

   “[A] pillar of dark smoke, which ascended from the chimnies of the donjon, and spread its long dusky pennon through the clear ether, indicated that it was inhabited.”

   “There were little factory villages, too, or larger towns, with their tall chimneys, and their pennons of black smoke, their ugliness of brick-work, and their heaps of refuse matter from the furnace, which seems to be the only kind of stuff which Nature cannot take back to herself and resolve into the elements, when man has thrown it aside.”