Hanging on to old traditions

QUESTION Why are clothes ‘hung’ but men ‘hanged’? THE difference between these forms lies in whether you are hanging a person or a thing.

Coats and pictures are hung, and sometimes so are juries, but criminals are hanged — suspended by the neck for the purpose of causing death.

But the fact that a person is suspended doesn’t mean that hanged is the right word. Benito Mussolini and his mistress were executed and their bodies hung upside down. Press incorrectly reported they were hanged. The two words came from different verbs in Old English and Old Norse. ‘Hang’ was a fusion of Old English hon (suspend, past tense heng) and Old English

hangian (to be suspended, past tense hangode), influenced by Old Norse hengja (suspend) and

hanga (to be suspended). One of these Old English words was a regular verb, giving rise to ‘hanged’, the other was irregular and became ‘hung’.

The distinction has lasted so long in the context of executions because it was the form used in legal English.

This legalese works like lexical formaldehyde. The context encourages a style that becomes fixed over time, preserving forms that fall out of ordinary use.

‘Hanged’ also survives in idioms such as ‘I’ll be hanged if . . .’

But in more modern idioms, ‘hung’ wins out — after all, he’s not ‘well hanged’! Janet Correl, Lincoln. QUESTION The other day we had a 41-gun salute by the Royal Horse Artillery, followed by a 64-gun salute at the Tower. What was the difference and significance of these numbers? FurTHEr to an earlier answer, there is a 124-gun salute from the Tower of London when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s birthdays fall on the same weekend.

It’s 21 guns, plus another 20 for being from a royal fortress, plus 21 for the City of London. That’s 62 guns each.

Arthur Gower, Canterbury, Kent.