pendeo

From Proto-Italic *pendēō, from earlier *pendējō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pn̥d-éh₁ye-ti, from *(s)pend- (“to stretch, pull, draw”). Related to pendō, pondus.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɛn.de.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpɛn̪.d̪e.o]

pendeō (present infinitive pendēre, perfect active pependī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem (intransitive)

1. to hang (down), to be suspended; hover, overhang, float

   Synonym: haereō

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.88-89:

     [...] pendent opera interrupta, minaeque
     mūrōrum ingentēs aequātaque māchina caelō.

     [...] Works are interrupted — [pieces] hang [in mid-air] — [for] the massive battlements of walls and machines level with the sky.
     (Cranes, hoists, and scaffolds sit idle — construction of Carthage halts — because the queen has become so distracted: The work is both literally and figuratively “suspended.”)

2. to hang about, loiter, tarry, linger
3. to be put in public, exposed for sale

   Synonym: liceō

4. to hang down; to be weak or without strength; sag, droop
5. to weigh
6. to have weight or value
7. to rest or depend upon
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.680:

     pendet ab officiō spēs mihi magna tuō.

     A great hope of mine hangs on what you can do for me. (trans. Anne and Peter Wiseman, 2011)

8. to hang upon a person's words; listen attentively to
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.79:

     [...] pendetque iterum nārrantis ab ōre.

     [...] and once again [Dido] hangs on [Aeneas’s] lips [with every] retelling [of his story].

9. to be suspended, interrupted or discontinued
10. to be ready to fall, hang suspended
11. to be uncertain, perplexed or in suspense, waver

    Synonyms: errō, dubitō, fluitō, vagor

    Antonym: cōnstō

• pendō

• “pendeo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pendeo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pendeo in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• pendeo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) important results are often produced by trivial causes: ex parvis saepe magnarum rerum momenta pendent
    
  • (ambiguous) to pay taxes: vectigalia, tributa pendere
    
  • (ambiguous) to be punished by some one (on account of a thing): poenas alicui pendere (alicuius rei)
    
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 988