Loading ...Fall Protection Dictionary: Lanyard
As a service to you, we here at the Snug Harness are going to break down some of the useful terminology and make fun of some of the stupid buzzwords that sales guys use to show you how “great” their fall protection is. So, without any further ado, let’s pull out another word from the Snug Harness Word Sack:
Lanyard:
Definition: A Lanyard is a line that is attached between an individual and an anchor.
Word Origin: This word sounds exotic, eh? Webster’s defines a lanyard as a cord with a hook at one end used to fire a cannon… I don’t think that’s right. I guess a lanyard in fall protection is a cord too. Although, I’ve got to be honest, the term “lanyard” reminds me of some sort of sweaty spandex that’s been peeled off of a male ballet dancer. It might be a part of the unitard family. Who knows? I’ve also heard it called a “Manyard.” Uh… that sounds pretty lame, and homogenized (Not that there’s anything wrong with that). I don’t think anyone knows where this name might have come from, except for maybe some smart guy. I can only suspect that it came from the ancient Hopi Tribe word, “Ug Lug,” which means “male tail.”
Analysis: When people think about a lanyard most people think about “That Thing” that connects to “The Thing” and “The Other Thing.” That’s exactly what a lanyard is, but let me get a little more specific if I may. “That Thing” refers to the cable, cord, rope, or webbing this makes up the lanyard. I’ve seen them made with just about everything, except for lace. Although lace can provide hours of entertainment, it in no way can support a human body in case of a fall. It may support infants, but an I Beam, thirty feet above the ground is no place for a baby.
“The Thing” refers to the D-Ring on the Harness being worn by the worker and “The Other Thing” refers to the anchor point that the lanyard would be connected to. Some of you are correct in your observation that the concept of a lanyard is very remedial. It is. The problem occurs when you’re presented with the eight million styles, attachments, do-hickeys, bells, and whistles you can buy on them. I think my head almost exploded.
This can be very expansive, so I will only briefly touch on the various options out there. One can buy a lanyard with single, double, triple, and rebar hooks. Surprisingly, ornament, coat, and captain hooks aren’t available yet. Another set of variations are the shock and non-shock absorbing lanyards. I’d like to think that this refers to the amount of insults a lanyard can take, but that’s not the case. You can get stretch lanyards, which are just like stretch pants. You can pull for days and they won’t come off. They even have internal shock lanyards that keep all of their emotions bottled up inside. Lanyards are even available in single and double leg, and some are merely for positioning. I’m not even going to go into a soft pack lanyard. To those of you who thought that was a joke, it wasn’t. As you can see, the options are endless. We’ll dive into them individually later.
Disclaimer: This post must make you aware if your thing can hold up to 400 lbs., you probably have a pretty strong thing; especially if you have a Heavy Duty thing. Your co-workers may be jealous.
Similar Terms:
The Manyard
The Spaniard
The Man Strand
The Expander Man Handler (only kidding!)
Word Associations:
Lanyard: Isn’t that what you try and throw your Lawn Darts into?
Lanyard: Didn’t Mr. T wear a bunch of gold lanyards?
Lanyard: I’m pretty positive that’s a fear of flying, and boating actually. Some people are lanyards. John Madden is a lanyard.
So, there you have it. This word is used throughout the business, and is a great staple of fall protection. Even though we’ve got miles to go, I hope you appreciated our dissection of the Lanyard, and as always we’ll be back again next week with another word. Thanks for stopping by the Snug Harness, where it’s always hot and sweaty. You never know what you might find in the Snug Harness’ world of construction and fall protection.
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All the definitions and humor are okay.
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