Why is hanged and not hung

Active Oldest Votes. Now here's the important bit, directly from the OED: The weak inflexion hanged however continued in use being the only one used in Bible versions from Coverdale to , though Tindale had also houng ; but was gradually superseded by hung in the general sense, trans. Improve this answer. Kosmonaut Kosmonaut 49k 10 10 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Grammar Girl writes that this is because there are 2 different Old English words for the two meanings: […] in Old English there were two different words for hang hon and hangen , and the entanglement of these words plus an Old Norse word hengjan is responsible for there being two past-tense forms of the word hang today 1.

Canned Man 5 5 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. Grimm in German. This leads to confusion, the intr. Legalese tends to be archaic or archaizing and thus retained the difference longer in English I guess, despite the Norse influence, if I might say so, which however surely showed the same dilemma. With all other past tenses of hang, you will want to use hung. And if death is not intended or likely, or the person is suspended by a body part other than the neck, use hung.

Hung is the regular past tense of hang. For example, the past tense of all of the beginning examples would use hung. Some will say that these two words, hanged vs.

Nooks and crannies. Semantic enigmas. The body beautiful. Red tape, white lies. Speculative science. This sceptred isle. Root of all evil. Here is a confirmatory test for this lesson. This test can also be: Edited i. Printed to create a handout. Sent electronically to friends or students. Did you spot a typo?