Descender" src="http://typographydeconstructed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/descender-white.gif" alt="Descender" width="190" height="190" />The part of the letters that extends below the baseline.

In most fonts, descenders are reserved for lowercase characters such as g, j, q, p, and y. Some fonts, however, also use descenders for some numerals (typically 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9). Such numerals are called old-style numerals. (Some italic fonts, such as Computer Modern italic, put a descender on the numeral 4 but not on any other numerals. Such fonts are not considered old-style.) Some fonts also use descenders for the tails on a few uppercase letters such as J and Q.

The parts of characters that extend above the x-height of a font are called ascenders.

mw Reference

the part of a lowercase letter (as p) that descends below the main body of the letter; also : a letter that has such a part