Hanged is used only when referring to the hanging of a person by the neck with the intention of killing him or her.
In all other cases, hung is the past tense of hang.
Examples:
Correct: The murderer is going to be hanged at dawn.
Incorrect: The murderer is going to be hung at dawn.
Correct: We hung your picture on the wall.
Incorrect: We hanged your picture on the wall.
Correct: One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.
Correct: We hung our swimsuits out to dry.
What about "Hung, drawn and quartered", then? Shouldn't it be "Hanged, drawn, and quartered"?
No, and this is why: "Hanged" is used when a person is hung by the neck with the intention of causing death. Being hung, drawn, and quartered is a rather different, very grisly, way to die: the person is not intended to die from the hanging but instead – slowly, painfully, and with a great deal of mess – by being slit open so that his guts spill out, and then chopped up into quarters.
Yuck! What a grisly ending to your blog post! Makes me think of Braveheart..
ReplyDeleteThink of the unfortunate picture.
ReplyDeleteFirst they framed it, then they hung it.
Not hanged it.
From time to time, I still get mixed up with the two...
ReplyDelete