Since this thread seems to be still running, I just want to add my "thrupence".
What about the verb to hang, which has got 2 past tenses hanged and hung, which
mean different things? The original English was to hang, hung(past), hung(past
participle). When did we start using hanged? Is it another American usage [...]
I've always used "hang, hung, hung" myself, but someone mentioned "hang" and its vagaries in a (private) message to me, so I checked my OED... According to it, it's the *hanged* (regular) past tense version that's "arachaic" (ie, older)...
With *one exception*: that of "hanged by the neck" (which is what my correspondent was referring to) -- still the preferred version, though the method of execution no longer exists in England.
Soooo... It looks like *this* time, it's the *Americans* who'd hung on to the "pure" original, while the *Brits* did a bit of "retro-refit" (like the US "dove" for the past of "dive")
I see that I'll have to re-read some "historical mysteries" by modern wrtiters to check what they'd put into the Victorian judges' mouths :)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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