As those of you in the U.S. know, and perhaps those of you in the UK have an inkling, both the Republican and Democratic campaigns have been very acrimonious. This quote, from a Sanders' fan to a Democratic party leader, is typical: "Hey bitch, we know where you live, where you work, where you eat, where your kids go to school. I think people like you should be hung (sic) in a public execution."

Now, setting aside the horror of that statement, for our site, I wondered about the sic here. Can't "hung" be used there, or should it be "hanged?"

The convention is that people executed by a rope round the neck are "hanged". In other uses the past participle is "hung".

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage provides many examples (including Pepys, Austen, Faulkner and O'Connor) of hung used in the execution sense, and concludes that if you observe the distinction (that Arnie mentions above), "you will spare yourself the annoyance of being corrected for having done something that is not wrong."

'Hanged' is nice & active. Somehow 'you shall be hung by the neck until dead' doesn't have the same ring...

Haven't we done this discussion before? What they used to call a "YART" on another discussion board?

Both men and women can be hanged but only men are hung.

quote:

concludes that if you observe the distinction (that Arnie mentions above), "you will spare yourself the annoyance of being corrected for having done something that is not wrong."

Love it, Goofy!

To me, "hung" sounds perfectly active.

quote:

Haven't we done this discussion before?

Probably, Geoff. We've been going for a long time. However, the sic caught my attention.

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
'Hanged' is nice & active. Somehow 'you shall be hung by the neck until dead' doesn't have the same ring...

And yet both "be hung" and "be hanged" are passive. Maybe "active" and "passive" are untranslatable.