Metal of wood or ivory worn as decoration by a seafarer long after landlubbers had abandoned them to the ladies Associated specially with bloody-minded mariners of the piratical type They often had the anchor device, symbol of the sailor's patron saint, St Nicholas of Myra (later to be transformed into Santa Claus) It was believed that if a man fell overboard then his earrings with anchor device would save him from drowning; St Nicholas would put a hook through one of the rings and pluck him out of the sea to safety