Hung
/hʌŋ/noun
Past tense and past participle of hang, meaning to suspend from above or to be suspended.
Did you know?The verb hang has a notorious split past: regular in one sense, but its older past tense hung became standard for suspension, while hanged survived especially for execution, preserving a grim legal distinction in English.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*keng-
“To be or become crooked, bent, or hooked”
Old English
OE
hōn / hēng
“To suspend; to cause to hang, and also to execute by hanging”
Old English
OE
hangian
“To hang, be suspended”
Middle English
ME
hangen / hongen
“To suspend; to execute by hanging”
Modern English
English
hung
“Past tense and past participle used for suspended objects or states”