Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 January 23

= January 23 =

Non-human animals executed by means of a rope
Curtains are hung, but people are hanged. But which applies to animals? Is it hung (since it is not a 'person' being hanged) or is it still hanged (since it's still execution by hanging?) Avic ennasis @ 13:05, 25 Tevet 5777 / 13:05, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * There is capital punishment for animals? Bus stop (talk) 13:10, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't think capital punishment (as in, state sanctioned execution) really matters. Victims of lynch mobs were certainly not sentenced to death under the laws of the land, but they were most certainly hanged. Avic ennasis @ 13:16, 25 Tevet 5777 / 13:16, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Can animals be victims of lynch mobs? Bus stop (talk) 13:21, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't see why not. It would certainly be extrajudicial punishment by an informal group, as per our article. Though it doesn't mention animals in particular, it doesn't really specify humans exclusively, either. Avic ennasis @ 13:28, 25 Tevet 5777 / 13:28, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Curtains are not "hanged" as a means of execution. The distinction is between the inanimate and animate. -- Deborahjay (talk) 13:14, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * But does personhood matter? en:wiktionary:hang says "To execute (someone) by suspension from the neck" - someone, not something. Avic ennasis @ 13:22, 25 Tevet 5777 / 13:22, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * For the side-issue, see Animal trial and, if really interested, this book. The short answer to the actual question is that the author of that book uses hanged, which seems perfectly reasonable. I see no reason to distinguish by species, certainly not on the basis of a wiktionary entry. HenryFlower 13:41, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Is personhood a binary concept or a continuum concept? If personhood is a continuum concept, and it is being considered for the purpose of answering the question as a binary concept (i.e. you either are or aren't) then that's an example of a category error, specifically the fallacy of the excluded middle.  -- Jayron 32 15:43, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Reading EO, it seems like "hung" would be the proper usage, except that "hanged" was already established in legalese, hence its usage still hangs around. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:48, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I like to think of it this way: the ball flew out, but the batter flied out. The noose was hung, but the prisoner was hanged. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:50, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * In an abattoir or a butcher's meat is generally hung for a period between slaughter and sale. Similarly, game birds which have been shot are traditionally are also hung. That is part of the normal preparation process, and only happens after slaughter - as a method of killing it would be considered cruelty. Wymspen (talk) 16:21, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, sure. But you could also hang a human cadaver on the wall of a science lab, say, and you would have then hung (not hanged) a corpse. It's one thing to hang a bird after it's been shot and has already died, it's quite another to hang a living bird. Avic ennasis @ 16:52, 25 Tevet 5777 / 16:52, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Mussolini was shot, and the corpses of he and his cohorts were hung in public. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:57, 23 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Maybe the difference between human and inanimate or whatever is the wrong distinction here. Maybe the difference is between as a means of suspension and as a method of killing.  That is, a person is hung upside-down by their legs from a jungle gym, but a person is hanged as a means of execution.  That would eliminate the problem of non-person animals from the definition.  If you're killing the animal, it is hanged, if your suspending the animal, it is hung.  -- Jayron 32 16:28, 23 January 2017 (UTC)


 * 'Murderous Mary' was "hanged": --2606:A000:4C0C:E200:8C1C:681F:58B9:E020 (talk) 16:50, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Taking a descriptivist approach to this, I get 138 unique Google hits for "hung a monkey" and 89 for "hanged a monkey", so while both forms are used "hung" seems commoner. Most of the hits relate to the well-known (east of the Pond) Hartlepool story. --Antiquary (talk) 18:05, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * "Hung" is often used colloquially instead of "hanged". Remember this bit of dialogue from Blazing Saddles? After Bart is saved from being hanged: "Bart! They said you was hung!" ... "And they was right!" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:11, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Or in My Fair Lady there's a song lyric where someone "should be taken out and hung for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue". --76.71.6.254 (talk) 19:18, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * That was done for rhyming purposes, and was a better option than "should be taken out and hanged for the cold-blooded murder of the English tanged". --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:40, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Citation needed. A priori, it could have been done because it was considered a valid usage. I personally have no problem with it.  --76.71.6.254 (talk) 00:03, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * A valid usage from the man in the street, maybe. But Professor Higgins was supposedly on top of his game, word-choice-wise, and the prescriptive grammars he would have lived and died by would have proscribed such a usage, as they still do to this day.  Why is your last sentence of particular moment?  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:28, 24 January 2017 (UTC)


 * A leopard was also lynched. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:23, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Animal rights defenders complain that, after hunting season, hunting dogs that are not useful anymore are executed by hanging. Searching a bit: Someone tortured, hanged and cut an ear off a dog --Error (talk) 18:41, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The difference was never between "human and inanimate".  As Deborahjay noted above, "the distinction is between the inanimate and animate". 92.8.216.77 (talk) 18:59, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * No, as I noted, the difference was between "executed" and "suspended". Animate subjects (including humans) can be hung just fine.  "He hung from the door frame with one hand" is perfectly cromulent.  -- Jayron 32 17:13, 25 January 2017 (UTC)