Latin Love, Vol III: pendere

Words like "depend" and "expend" share the common ancestry of "pendere," meaning not only "to hang," and "to weigh," but also "to pay." After all, when you spend money, you shift the weight of it from yourself to the seller.
More Latin Love, Volume III lists:
seguire, capere, specere, and littera!
ELA Common Core State Standard: "Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word."
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. pendant
    an adornment that hangs from a piece of jewelry
    Necklaces, earrings, pendants and rings with diamonds, sapphires and other gems will go on auction in New York City starting Tuesday. Washington Post (Dec 12, 2011)
    Usually, pendants are worn as necklaces. People commonly wear religious symbols made out of precious metals as pendants, as well as well-crafted pendants made out of gemstones.
  2. pendulum
    an apparatus in which an object is mounted to swing freely
    Business culture often seems like a pendulum, swinging between two extremes: workforce autonomy and centralized management. Forbes (Mar 18, 2013)
    When you hear the word "pendulum," you can expect to hear the word "swing," as well. A pendulum is a weight that, once set into motion, moves back and forth in a balanced motion powered by the natural laws of physics.
  3. ponder
    reflect deeply on a subject
    As I pondered the results, other questions came to mind. Scientific American (Apr 19, 2013)
    When you ponder something it means that the object of your pondering weighs heavily in your mind. When something is so weighty that all the thinking in the world at your disposal will not reveal its mysteries, we call it "imponderable."
  4. ponderous
    having great mass and weight and unwieldiness
    Calm, composed, he uttered his thoughts in those ponderous sentences which ever after characterized his public addresses. Headley, Joel Tyler
    Although the word "ponderous" refers to something that is literally heavy and ungraceful, like an elephant, the word is often used metaphorically, as in the example sentence, for a style of communication that is as slow and plodding as an elephant.
  5. impend
    be imminent or about to happen
    The president should not be kept in the dark about impending problems, particularly ones that are potentially explosive politically.
    You may have heard of something that is in the works but has not yet happened as "pending." The word "impending" is very similar to this. An impending event is something that is hanging out there, about to weigh in.
  6. suspend
    bar temporarily
    A court order on Thursday suspended the game at Maracana Stadium, but was overturned a few hours later.
    When an action is suspended, it is not cancelled. Rather, it is just "hanging out there," undergoing a waiting period, for some reason. Suspension bridges, like the Golden Gate Bridge, are really roadways that are suspended from cables that are held up by towers.
  7. preponderance
    superiority in power or influence
    A preponderance of gadgetry can make the two plug sockets found in most student rooms seem inadequate.
    The word "preponderance" is similar to the word "abundance" in that both have to do with any quantity that takes up more than half of the whole amount.
  8. appendage
    a part that is joined to something larger
    And Florida will no longer keep its distinct appendage shape. Scientific American (Feb 14, 2013)
    In the example sentence, the state of Florida is used to show that Florida's peninsular shape makes it look like an appendage, something added to and hanging down from, the mainland.
  9. compensate
    make payment to
    In Australia, gun owners were compensated when they handed in previously legal weapons.
    Compensation may refer to payments other than money. People can be compensated for their goods or services in various ways. Compensation is like a counterweight, balancing the scales between what a person has given and what he receives in return.
  10. dispensary
    clinic where medicine and medical supplies are distributed
    Patients are treated only at the dispensary serving the district in which they live. Various
    Although the word "dispensary" really just means "a place where stuff is given out," the word has a medical connotation, and is used synonymously with the word "pharmacy," the difference being that a dispensary is often associated with a free clinic.
  11. recompense
    the act of making amends for service or loss or injury
    In 1830, the United States government made a large grant of lands to his heirs as a further recompense for his military services. Various
    The word "recompense," meaning, literally, "pay back," has a legalistic connotation. If you do an ordinary job and are paid for it, you are said to be "compensated," rather than "recompensed," which would more likely be used to refer to payment for military or some other service where personal sacrifice is involved.
Created on Fri May 31 10:46:35 EDT 2013 (updated Thu Aug 15 16:02:35 EDT 2019)

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