A snooty waiter might condescend to serve you dinner at a fancy restaurant, meaning that he'd consider himself far too important to carry out the mundane task of delivering your hamburger and fries. You might have noticed that condescend contains the word descend, meaning to move down from a higher place. You can think of condescend as lowering yourself to do a task that you feel is far beneath you. Kings and queens would never condescend to do their own laundry at the palace, for example. If they even knew how to do the laundry, you can be sure they'd do it in a condescending, or superior, way to let everyone know that housework is no task for a monarch.
Appointment of federal judges is a two-step process involving both the Executive and Legislative Branches of government. The President (Executive Branch) nominates someone for a vacancy on the bench, and the Senate (Legislative Branch) approves or rejects the nomination to complete the appointment. The executive branch (specifically the President) appoints federal judges subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Federal judges are appointed for life. The term for a judge in a state court will vary from state to state and court to court. For example, in my state the circuit court judges are appointed for 10 year terms, district court & family court judges get 6 year terms. We also have per diem judges (basically, substitute judges who get called in for a day or two now and then) in the district & family court who get appointed for two terms.