A pend on Merchant Street in Edinburgh for both vehicles and pedestrians

In Scotland, a Pend is a passageway through a building, often from a street through to a courtyard or 'back court', and may be for both vehicles and pedestrian access[1] or exclusively pedestrians.

The term "common pend" can often be found in descriptions of Scottish property for sale, such as "a common pend shared with the residential dwellings above".[2][3]

A typical pedestrian-only pend in Broxburn, West Lothian

A pend is distinct from a vennel or a close, as it has rooms directly above it, whereas vennels and closes tend not to be covered over and are typically passageways between separate buildings. However, a 'close' also means a common entry to multi-dwelling tenement properties in Scotland.

Etymology

The OED suggests that the etymology of the word is probably related to the archaic verb pend - "arch, arch over, vault", this in turn being derived from the French pendre, Latin pendēre "to hang", from which also derives the word pendulum.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Town and Regional Planning Programme, University of Dundee. "Conservation Glossary, entry for "pend"". Archived from the original on 12 February 1997. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  2. ↑ "Commercial property listing for Arbroath, Scotland". 28 April 2020. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "Residential property listing for Campbeltown, Scotland". 29 April 2020. Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  4. ↑ OED, online edition, draft revision December 2007, entries for pend, n2 and pend, v2' '


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