Hangman
/ˈhæŋ.mən/noun
A person who carries out executions by hanging; also, a word game in which players guess a hidden word letter by letter.
Did you know?The executioner sense is the older one; the popular guessing game took the same name because each wrong letter used to draw one more part of a doomed figure.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
hangian
“to hang; to be suspended”
Old English
OE
hangen
“hung, suspended”
Middle English
ME
hangman
“a person who hangs or executes by hanging”
16th–17th Century
English
hangman
“an executioner, especially one who carried out hanging”
19th Century
English
hangman
“the word-guessing game named for the drawn figure of an execution by hanging”
Modern English
English
hangman
“an executioner by hanging; the spelling game”