Grammatical pet peeve

[novapsyche]

It's begun to irk me when people say hung when they really mean hanged.

Comments

[jennkitty.livejournal.com]

it irks me when people say "loose" and mean "lose". when did we all move to England?

[dethany.livejournal.com]

Yes. Hung is for nuts, hanged is for necks.

[guppiecat]

So, does the term "hung like a horse" refer to the horse's anatomical features, or to the apocryphal truss used by Catherine the Great?

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

"Hanged" only refers to the execution method, right?

[entheo.livejournal.com]

whats this move business?

[jennkitty.livejournal.com]

???

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Dictionary.com notes:

Hang has two forms for the past tense and past participle, hanged and hung. The historically older form hanged is now used exclusively in the sense of causing or putting to death: He was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. In the sense of legal execution, hung is also quite common and is standard in all types of speech and writing except in legal documents. When legal execution is not meant, hung has become the more frequent form: The prisoner hung himself in his cell.

As well as:

Hanged, as a past tense and a past participle of hang, is used in the sense of "to put to death by hanging," as in Frontier courts hanged many a prisoner after a summary trial. A majority of the Usage Panel objects to hung used in this sense. In all other senses of the word, hung is the preferred form as past tense and past participle, as in I hung my child's picture above my desk.

[sarahsmiles.livejournal.com]

correct me if I'm wrong, but people are hanged, and the rest is hung, right?

[entheo.livejournal.com]

oh, its just some of us live where we already use proper English ;)

[jennkitty.livejournal.com]

i could bite my tongue, but i think i'd rather bite my thumb. :)