Why this word is great
PERPEND — [Verb] To ponder or consider carefully. From Latin perpendere, from per- ("thoroughly") + pendere ("to weigh"). Unlike "reflect" (which turns inward, sifting memories like old photographs) or "deliberate" (which unfolds in the shared space of debate), "perpend" is the solitary act of holding an idea in the mind’s palm, testing its heft. It is the scholar tracing an argument’s contours by lamplight, the gardener weighing soil between thumb and forefinger, or the judge pausing before the gavel falls—a quiet reckoning with the weight of things before they become decisions. Thought, too, has its gravity.