pender

Forms

pender (first-person singular present pendo, first-person singular preterite pendí, past participle pendido)^[1] Old Spanish had the diphthongised present piende and the participle pendudo “hanged”.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pender, inherited from Latin pendeō (“to hang, be suspended”).^[2][4][5][1] Corominas takes the diphthong of the Old Spanish present piende, frequent in Berceo, and the participle pendudo (“hanged”) of his Milagros as proof that the verb was a popular, hereditary word.^[2][1]

The same Latin verb is Italian pendere, French pendre, Occitan pendre, Portuguese pender and Galician pender.^[6][1] Corominas derives the popular pingar “to hang; to drip” and Catalan penjar (“to hang”) from a Vulgar Latin derivative, *pendicāre.^[2][4]

The Latin verb is the stative beside pendō (“to weigh; to pay”); it comes from Proto-Italic *pendēō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch, pull”).^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the verb at the very beginning of the language, in the Glosas Silenses; the BDELC dates it to the end of the 10th century.^[2][4] Berceo uses it for Christ on the cross: Piende en cruz agora et por la mi locura “he hangs on the cross now, and for my folly”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Charters of the early 13th century seal their documents with a seello pendiente or pendient, a hanging seal.^[9] After Berceo the verb grows rarer;^[2][10] Alfonso X explains a word from Latin pendere “to hang”, and the dictionary of his prose treats the verb as foreign.^[2][10] It is used again by some 15th-century authors and by many classical writers, Cervantes often among them, but by then it has a learned flavour, and it has remained a literary archaism to this day.^[2][11]

From the 16th century the verb is also legal: Covarrubias in 1611 says that a lawsuit pende while it waits for the judges' sentence, and a document from Nicaragua already uses it so in 1529.^[12][13] Autoridades adds the sense “to depend”.^[14] Terreros records the image of a life that pende de un hilo “hangs by a thread”, still a common phrase.^[15] Modern dictionaries add a threat or danger that hangs over someone.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 900s – the Glosas Silenses, at the end of the century, the first record.^[2][4]
• c. 1218 – charters speak of a hanging seal, seello pendente.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses the diphthongised present piende and the participle pendudo.^[2][3]
• 1529 – first record in the Americas, of a pending lawsuit in Nicaragua.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the legal sense.^[12]
• 1737 – Autoridades gives “to hang”, “to depend” and “to be undecided”.^[14]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records pender de un hilo.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's definition adds “or inclined”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a thing, to hang, be suspended or tilted: Del techo pendían ristras de ajos.^[5][16][1]
2. (intransitive) To depend on someone or something; to be subordinate to it.^[5][17]
3. (intransitive) Of a lawsuit or business, to be pending, still unresolved.^[5][1]
4. (intransitive, with sobre) Of a threat or danger, to hang over someone or something.^[16][17]

Word family

• pendanga
• pendiente

Related words

• pesar
• péndulo
• pingar
• Latin pendeō
• Italian pendere
• French pendre

Usage notes

Pender de un hilo “to hang by a thread” is a fixed phrase.^[15][1] In the Bierzo (León) pender means “to pay”, which García de Diego derives from Latin pendere in that sense.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 476
3. ^ a b c Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 574
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pender
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pender
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pendēre
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pendeō
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 536
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pender
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. pender
11. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 854
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1204
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pender
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 202
15. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 86
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pender
17. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pender
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 761
19. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4915