pend
Latinweigh, pay out, spend, hang
About This Root
The pend family comes from Latin pendere, a verb with two closely related physical ideas: “to hang” and “to weigh.” In the ancient world, weighing often meant suspending something from a balance, so the two meanings naturally lived together. The “hang” side gives us pendulum, pendant, suspend, pending, impending, and depend. A decision that is pending is still hanging; a danger that is impending is hanging over you; something that depends on another thing is metaphorically hanging from it for support. The “weigh/pay” side gives us spend, expense, expend, dispense, and compensation. Money was weighed out, paid out, or balanced against a loss. That is why compensation can feel like restoring balance, and expenditure is what has been paid out. This root is valuable because it shows how a concrete physical action becomes several abstract ideas: reliance, delay, threat, payment, distribution, and balance.
Picture an old balance scale: something hangs from it, is weighed, then paid out. From that one image come depend, suspend, pending, expense, spend, and compensation.
Core Words Deep Dive
The few words from this family worth telling in full — one by one.
Depend turns physical hanging into abstract reliance. If A depends on B, A is hanging from B for support or outcome.
Suspend keeps both the literal and figurative picture: something can hang from above, or an activity can be left hanging and therefore paused.
Expense belongs to the weighing/payment side of pend. Value is weighed out and leaves you, so it becomes a cost.
Compensation is about restoring balance: something is weighed against a loss, injury, or service and paid back.
Pendulum is the root’s physical picture in its purest form: a hanging weight moving back and forth.
Related Roots
tain/ten means hold; pend means hang or weigh. Both can suggest support, but depend is “hang from,” while contain is “hold together.”
st is about standing or being fixed; pend often suggests hanging, waiting, or being unsettled.
pens is the weighing/pay-out stem inside words like expense, dispense, and compensation; in this database it is handled as part of pend.
Associated Words · 32
appendix
Supplementary material at the end of a book; the vermiform appendix in the body
compendium
A concise but comprehensive summary or collection
compensate
To pay or reward someone; to make up for something negative
compensation
Money or something given to make up for loss or service
compensatory
Intended to make up for loss or injury
depend
to rely on; to be determined by
dependant
A person who relies on another for support
dependent
Relying on another for support; a person financially supported by another
dispensable
Not essential; able to be done without
dispense
To distribute or give out; to prepare and supply medicine
expend
To use up or consume a resource
expenditure
The act of spending money; the total amount spent
expense
The cost or money spent on something
expensive
Costing a lot of money; high in price
impend
To be imminent or about to happen
impending
About to happen soon; imminent
indispensability
The quality of being absolutely essential or necessary
interdependence
The state of depending on each other mutually
pendant
A hanging ornament worn on a necklace
pendent
Hanging down; pending or undecided
pending
Awaiting a decision; while waiting for something
pendulum
A swinging weight used to regulate clocks; something that swings between extremes
pension
A regular payment to a retired person; to grant such a payment
pensive
Deeply and sadly thoughtful; absorbed in serious reflection
perpendicular
At a right angle to something; a line forming a right angle
propensity
A natural tendency or inclination toward something
recompense
Compensation or reward for service or loss; to compensate or reward
spend
to pay out money; to pass or use up time
suspend
To temporarily stop something; to hang from above
suspender
A strap for holding up trousers or stockings
suspense
Excitement or anxiety about an uncertain outcome
suspension
A temporary halt or removal; particles dispersed in a fluid