Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 02:36:51 -0500

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Hanged / Hung; Mr. Right



HANGED / HUNG:



Hanged / Hung was discussed a few days ago. The following brief

abstract is from "THE FEDERAL LANGUAGE" (BEING A CHAPTER ON AMERICANISMS) by

Richard Grant White, Galaxy magazine, November 1877, pp. 686-687. It's

wonderful--absolutely check the whole thing out:



HUNG. HANGED.

... The points here are, that English speakers and writers say that men who

are strangled, or who strangle themselves by hanging, are hanged; that the

same writers say that articles--inanimate things which are suspended--are

hung; and that Americans say that strangled people are hung. ...

That point is settled. It is clear that in England great offenders are

_hanged_, and that to say that they are _hung_ is a gross and abominable

Americanism. ...



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