hang vs. hung

[Dave Hause]

I use that as "horses are hung, men are hanged."
Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
Waynesville, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: <RonButters at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 10:05 AM
Subject: hang vs. hung


A hoary joke that I first heard 50 years ago; "Did you hear about the
plastic surgeon who hung himself?" When I first heard it, I didn't
understand it
because I didn't realize that "Man is he hung!" meant his penis was
unusually
large--AND because "hung by the neck until dead" seemed perfectly
grammatical to
me. "I'll be hanged" was an expression that I did not associate with causing
someone to die by the rope-around-the-neck method.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org