I’ll Try to Pend Passing Judgment on This “Word”

Pending comes from the French word pendant, which means “hanging.” As we all know, it’s an adjective that means “awaiting decision or settlement.”

But today, I saw an appellate court back-form this adjective into a verb:

A condition precedent is a fact or event that must exist or take place before there is a right to performance. The nonoccurrence of such a condition pends the obligor’s duty to perform on the ground that it is not due as long as the condition has not occurred.

Zivic v. Zivic, 26 Conn. App. 5, 9 (1991) (emphasis added).