hang vs. hung

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some time between 1982 and early 1984 a local radio call-in host was discussing capital punishment.  A merry prankster with a strong East Tennessee accent and a middle-aged voice called in to say, "angrily," "You say you want capital punishment !  So my question is, do you want to see a woman hung like a man ?"

  Caught off guard, the host was nonplussed by what seemed to be simple case of non sequitur. He mumbled something like, "I don't think I quite undersatnd your point."

  The caller repeated, even more angrily, "Do you want to see a woman hung like a man ?"

  The host, who may or may or may not have caught on, hung up with a "Thank you for calling," and said, "I just don't know what he was getting at."

  JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: hang vs. hung
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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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