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etymology - Why are clothes “hung” but men “hanged”?


It is said that clothes can be hung but men are hanged.


Is this correct, and if so, why?



Answer



According to the OED, the verb hang came into English from Old Norse hengja with weak inflection (so, taking regular past forms). Eventually, by analogy with other ablaut forms like sing/sang/sung, the verb hang changed into a few different forms (depending on the region of England), e.g. hing/hang, hang/hong, etc. Ultimately, the hing/hang form added hung to complete the sing/sang/sung analogy.


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(being the only one used in Bible versions from Coverdale to 1611, though Tindale had also houng); but was gradually superseded by hung in the general sense, trans. and intr., leaving hanged only in the special trans. sense (3) ‘put to death by hanging’, owing prob. to the retention of this archaic form by judges in pronouncing capital sentences. The distinction is found already in Shakespeare, and is established in the objurgatory expressions ‘You be hanged!’ ‘I'll be hanged if I do’, and the like.



(At some point, obviously hing fell out of use in Standard English in the present tense form.)


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