Hang in there8/2/2023 ![]() ![]() However, both forms are commonly found, and both are commonly found used in either sense. Hanged retained its position when used to refer to death by hanging, possibly due to being favored by judges who were passing a sentence. Hanged and hung were used interchangeably for hundreds of years, although over time the one from the irregular verb ( hung) eventually became the more common one. One of these Old English verbs was what we might think of as a regular verb, and this gave rise to hanged the other was irregular, and ended up becoming hung. It's not that simple, however: most usage guides reserve hanged for people subjected to death, which means if an inanimate object is suspended from a gallows, the correct term is hung.ĭespised by the voters, he was hung in effigy.Ī stripped-down version of why we have these two different words is that the word hang came from two different verbs in Old English (and possibly also one from Old Norse). Justice Wargrave ordered Edward Seton to be hanged by the neck until dead. The Salem "witches" were not burned they were hanged. Use hanged when referring to a person being suspended by a rope around the neck until dead. I hung a picture of Noah Webster on the wall.Īfter school, she hung out in the library. The standard rule for the past tense of hang is this: in almost all situations, you should use the word hung. Observing the popular distinction between 'hanged' and 'hung' will not make you a better writer, but it will spare you the annoyance of being corrected for having done something that is not wrong. ![]()
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