# Is it now acceptable to use "hung" instead of "hanged" in the sense of execution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235 "2014-01-20T00:25:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/61 "2014-01-22T14:50:21Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > It’s an erroneous backformation. The original word was _cherise_, and ignorant people assumed it was a plural because it ended in an _s_ sound, so they started calling one of them a “cherry.” (It didn’t help that fruitmongers of the time probably spelled _cherise_ with an apostrophe before the _s_. The few who could write, anyway.) It’s as clear a case of linguistic solecism as you’ll find, and the fact that this mistake is now found in respectable dictionaries is a clear sign that English is in decline. It may have taken seven hundred years for anyone to notice, but surely just because everybody makes the same mistake for seven hundred years doesn’t make it correct! If you’re a prescriptivist, anyway. Next thing you know, people will be wearing jackets without tails to dinner! I think this post deserves a kudo 😉 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/62 "2014-01-22T14:54:41Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I think this post deserves a kudo 😉 I saw what you did there! ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/63 "2014-01-22T15:36:03Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > By the way, I’m shocked that anyone with the slightest education would use such a corrupt and vulgar word (if it can even be called such) as “okay.” It seems perfectly Olden Kinder to me. I might even say it’s perfectly cromulent, and everything’s copasetic. > [@commasense](#): > > I saw what you did there! lol. I missed it, so thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/64 "2014-01-22T15:41:56Z")
I got in an argument the other day (silly me) over whether “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is a word. I said it wasn’t. They said it was in the dictionary, I bet it wasn’t in my 1980’s American Heritage unabridged. I was wrong; it was there, listed as a “nonsense word”. I was wrong. I should have said that it didn’t exist before Disney’s Mary Poppins put it into play, and that any meaning it has isn’t based on any etymology but rather due to its use (and invention) in the movie. Silly me. In any case, English dictionaries tend to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. The presence of something in a dictionary doesn’t make it acceptable in formal writing. One has to actually read the entry to see whether it’s slang, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/65 "2014-01-22T17:41:49Z")
Actually, it predates the Disney movie. Its [origin](https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/supercal31.jpg) was recently [discovered.](http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/) Now what do you have to say? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/66 "2014-01-22T17:44:17Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I think this post deserves a kudo 😉 How kind of you. You have my most sincere thank. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/67 "2014-01-23T01:17:05Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > [Not all of them.](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/B4) And let’s think this through a little. As dictionaries cease to be published primarily on paper, there will be little cause to cull words from the dictionary. The only question will be whether someone using the dictionary will benefit from the entry or will find it spurious, confusing, or misleading. As long as there is a possibility that someone might encounter “b4” in a text (whether traditional or SMS) and seek to look it up in a dictionary, I think there is a good case for it being there, and little or no case against it (except concern about space in a paper dictionary). Being in a dictionary doesn’t make it the preferred spelling or the official spelling or a “real word” (whatever that means). It means that someone seeking it can find information about it, including its meaning, but also its part of speech and possibly pronunciation, etymology, date of first use, example sentences, even usage notes explaining that it’s inappropriate in all but very casual communication, especially SMS text messages. Yup, I’m on board with all of that. My objection is to weemart’s suggestion that “b4 should **replace** before” and “b4 is the preferred spelling”. It shouldn’t, and it isn’t. I have no objection to adding “b4” to dictionaries as a variant spelling of “before” if readers are likely to encounter it. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/68 "2014-01-23T09:33:54Z")
On the half-dozen or so forums to which I contribute, the use of txt spch is actively discouraged by the members, and its use is likely to trigger a chorus of uncomplimentary comments. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/69 "2014-01-23T16:33:36Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Actually, it predates the Disney movie. Its [origin](https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/supercal31.jpg) was recently [discovered.](http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/) Now what do you have to say? 😉 The Sherman brothers’ work for Disney, and the first big-screen use of that word, are shown in _Saving Mr. Banks_, now playing at a theater near you. It’s about Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) wooing and winning over P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), creator of Mary Poppins, for the rights to her books. Very good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/70 "2014-01-23T16:40:07Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Actually, it predates the Disney movie. Its [origin](https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/supercal31.jpg) was recently [discovered.](http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/tracking-down-the-roots-of-a-super-word/) Now what do you have to say? 😉 Hah! Ignorance fought! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/71 "2014-01-24T02:43:49Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > On the half-dozen or so forums to which I contribute, the use of txt spch is actively discouraged by the members, and its use is likely to trigger a chorus of uncomplimentary comments. Nice to know we’re not alone. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/72 "2014-01-26T06:28:17Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Whenever I hear an American say squirrel, they pronounce it Skwerl. Maybe it is the ones with German ancestors? > > Oddly Googling: “Americans” can’t pronounce squirrel, only produces a list of Germans… Grrr Probably the linguists who research this sort of thing should ask the subject to sing a word like “mirror” or “squirrel” over two adjacent pitches in a melody. If the person sings “skwu-uurl” or “mee–eer” then the words are monosyllabic as he or she pronounces them. By contrast, if the bisyllabic pronunciation seems standard to the subject, they’ll sing “skwer-rel” and “mir-ror”. This occurred to me on noticing that Kurt Cobain clearly sings “Broke our meers” in “Lithium”, but in “Dream On” Steve Tyler definitely sings “in the mirror”, rhyming the last word with “clearer”. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/73 "2014-01-26T06:39:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > It’s all right for you lot - we get all your Americanisms over here from TV shows. Don’t have realtor yet (we have much grander ‘estate agents’) but we do have noo for new and many others. “Realtor” was invented as a professional title by the industry, because they thought “estate agent” (or, more typically in the States, “real estate agent”) wasn’t grand enough. There’s nothing terrible about that as far as I’m concerned, let them be realtors. But many of us can’t handle the pronunciation of the word, so they stick the extra syllable in between “real-” and “-tor”–thus"real-a-tor". It’s probably the same people who say “ath-a-lete”. > [@](#): > > As an aside - why do Americans have so much trouble saying ‘squirrel’ and ‘mirror’? It isn’t \*\*that \*\*hard. The ones who do this are mostly the same people who talk about “airs” in software or grammar tests, or allude to the War On Tear. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/74 "2014-01-26T11:48:07Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Whenever I hear an American say squirrel, they pronounce it Skwerl. > [@j666](#): > > The first syllable may elide (is that the right word?) into the second, but I have never heard it pronounced like that. > [@pulykamell](#): > > To me, that looks like a good approximation of how most people I know seem to say it. I would say “skwerl” and “squirrel” exactly the same way… For me, “squirrel” and “curl” have the same amount of syllables. Whether that’s one, one and a half, or two (the “rl” combination can be counted as a swallowed or full syllable if you want). This discussion brings to mind, a “can’t resist” little verse by Ogden Nash (trust him to confuse things still further). A virile young squirrel named Cyril, In an argument over a girl – Was lambasted from here to the Tyrol By a churl of a skwerl called Earl. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/75 "2014-01-26T13:37:46Z")
Maybe I shouldn’t mention the grey tree rats that invaded this country, and are ousting our much prettier red variety. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/76 "2014-01-26T22:13:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Maybe I shouldn’t mention the grey tree rats that invaded this country, and are ousting our much prettier red variety. Fellow-Brit, I’m right with you on that one. The subject came up on a thread on GQ, “Does anyone know what happened to the gray squirrel population?”, started 09-24-2009 and “bumped” in summer 2013. I raised there, the matter of grey squirrels introduced from America, ousting the British red. The rejoinder came from an American poster: “We’ll take back the squirrels when you take back the starlings !” ---
**Author:** ![OurLordPeace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@OurLordPeace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OurLordPeace)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/77 "2014-01-26T22:22:06Z")
It’s hanged! Two different words (ought to) signify two different things (as much as possible)! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/78 "2014-01-26T22:24:27Z")
If so, does this mean that back in college, I bung my girlfriends? That just doesn’t sound right. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/79 "2014-01-26T23:04:07Z")
> [@OurLordPeace](#): > > It’s hanged! Two different words (ought to) signify two different things (as much as possible)! What have you got against synonyms? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235/80 "2014-01-27T09:32:25Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > What have you got against synonyms? I conclude you don’t have any in your avenue. They appear over here, fetching our activities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-now-acceptable-to-use-hung-instead-of-hanged-in-the-sense-of-execution/679235.md?page=5)