Pend is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 architectural term referring to a passageway that passes through a building, often from a street through to a courtyard

Courtyard

A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....

, and typically designed for vehicular rather than exclusively pedestrian access.

A pend is distinct from a vennel

Vennel

A vennel is a passageway between the gables of two buildings which could in effect be a minor street in Scotland, particularly in Royal Burghs created in the twelfth century,...

 or a close

Close

Close may refer to:*Close In music:*"Close", a song by Rascal Flatts from Unstoppable*"Close", a song by Soul Asylum from Candy from a Stranger*"Close", a song by Westlife from Coast to Coast...

, as it has rooms directly above it, whereas vennels and closes are not covered over but rather are passageways between separate buildings.

The OED

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

 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

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

pendre, Latin pendēre "to hang"