In typography, the part of a letter that extends below the baseline of text, like the tail on letters g, j, p, q, or y.
From descend (Latin descendere, 'go down') + -er (agent suffix). First used in printing terminology in the 20th century to describe visual features of letterforms.
Typography nerds get genuinely excited about descenders because they create vertical rhythm in text—without them, fonts would look cramped and uneven, and reading speed actually changes based on how far letters drop below the line.
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