"The slinky burgundy cheongsam was hung in the back of the closet."
"The spy was hanged wearing her slinky burgundy cheongsam."
Just fussin' 'cause in the last few days I've seen quite a few instances of the former form used for the latter circumstance. I have no idea what the literate, edumacated, preferred form of the past participle of "to hang", as in "to execute", is. I could be dead wrong about this, and my nails-across-a-chalkboard reaction completely idiosyncratic. Just sounds all wrong to me - "was hung" being lightweight, risible, lacking in the awful gravity of the act denoted. (Yes, I know my example lacks awful gravity. Nonetheless.) And odd, really, considering the tendency in the opposite direction - that is, the habit of using the past tense for the past participle: "had drank", "had ran", etc. Once again, nails-on-chalkboard to my ears, but a usage that I found to be very common in the western U.S.
Ad hoc usage panel of readers, feel free to correct me. (And be hanged for it, may I add.)
Moira, you are right. When we say a man was hung, it means something totally different than saying he was hanged. And I don't care about the "awful gravity of the act", though gravity does play a crucial role. The usage "hung by the neck until dead" is an illiteracy, objectively in error, and just plain wrong.
What the hell is a cheongsam?
Posted by: dipnut on September 03, 2003
Now Dip, why did I say to myself, when I was writing this, "I wonder how long it will take some wag to snicker about the other sense of 'was hung'? Oh, first comment, I bet." Tsk. But I appreciate the scholarly commentary.
A cheongsam is that classic Chinese dress style. (See, for example, In the Mood for Love, where cheongsams in many patterns and colors are worn by the supremely elegant Maggie Cheung.)
Posted by: Moira on September 03, 2003
"Correct"? I imagine that rather depends on what you're trying to say, and how.
I don't know that "correct" in this case is any more than an aesthetic preference for the more formal (and possibly less ambiguous) construction. Certainly in informal dialect, "hung" is deemed perfectly correct.
"The Marshall hung those horse-thieves from a tree last night", say.
I can't see any reason to call that usage incorrect in any strict sense. A usage can, after all, just sit wrong without being grammatically incorrect - especially given how fluid and how few the rules are.
At least it's a proper form of the word - "to hang" is the same verb in either case, whether the object being hanged is a dress, or a man by the neck, until dead. Why might such a usage feel odd? I can't imagine - but people are like that.
Posted by: Sigivald on September 10, 2003
