Verbiage :)

[Darris Chambless]

You know...?

My wife and I got into a little discussion yesterday over a word. That word being "hung." Now before anyone becomes offended we were talking about the tenses of the word hang and the validity of the words tenses as they pertain to grammar. My wife said that she was told that the word "hung" was not a real word and that "hanged" was the real tense of the word. I found this hard to believe because of "Twas the night before Christmas." The stockings were not "hanged by the chimney with care," they were "hung by the chimney with care." So I looked it up.

First I looked up "hung" and it is in fact in the dictionary just like I thought it would be. It says that "hung" is the "pt and pp of the word hang." In finding this I had proven my point but then it goes on the reffer to "hung" as "slang such as hung over, or hung up." So is it valid or not? Then I discovered something that took my mind off of the whole debate anyway.

So then you're asking yourself "What point are you trying to make?" Well, the point I'm trying to make is finding the unseen. I went on and found out that the word hung also has a different meaning as listed in Websters dictionary. "Hung" also means "neurotic." I never knew this and was amazed that it was never one of my Berge and Evans vocabulary words from school.

The thing of it is that you will never hear a guy walk up and say he's extremely neurotic :)

Well, that's todays vocabulary lesson and I hope you've learned it because there will be a test on Friday

Love always,

Darris C.

[Pete Hanlin]

I'm guessing it might have to do with the exact nature of the tense. For example, a past tense where the action has been completed in the past would probably be "hanged."

A past perfect tense (I think that is what it is called when the action occurred in the past and is continuing into the present) might be "hung."

Just guessing, I know in Greek there are distinctions between the types of past tenses, I don't know about English. Perhaps one of our colleages from England proper (or even Scotland or Wales, er... scratch that last one) could tell us for sure!?!

[ioconnell]

Hung is Preterit, refering to past.
Hanged is past participle, Hanged is a word having the properties of both an adjective and verb in the past tense.

[hcjilson]

Gentlemen, I wouldn't argue with ioconnell on this.....mainly because he is currently enrolled in an educational institution and its been a few years since we have!!He probably answered the above with textbook in hand........I can't remember the last time I held a text book.....but I think it was when I was helping my son or daughter when they were in school 15 or 20 years ago.

Preterit is a term with which I am unfamiliar and alas my new office lacks a dictionary.As used in the above sentence its meaning becomes clear however its Latin derivitive may be "before the earth"
I should return to the halls of ivy and get a real education this time! :D

[Judy Canty]

Denoting past action or state...

[Darris Chambless]

Hello everyone,

Once again my subtlety has gotten the better of those of you responding. There is a really good, but off colored joke hidden in that posting. Now I know you all have a sense of humor so go back and find it and let me know once you have. A joke is only funny if it is based in truth so...

BTW my wife and I did actually have this discussion yesterday and I got to the punchline with her and we had a really good laugh.

Talk to you later,

Darris C.

[Night Train]

Is that Petes Signature in his post or is it the word "hang" or "Hung"?

By the way, I LOVE reading the dictionary, I always find weird stuff like this. Yesterday, during church, I was not paying attention to the sermon (as usual) and I was reading in Leviticus about something called a "wave offering". A person was actually waving a breast of meat before the Lord. Now THAT is something I never read before.

[hcjilson]

For all you fans of the old West...

Tom Horn was anything but neurotic....but he was pretty well hanged! (in Wyoming about 1901 or so)

Sorry Darris, I couldn't resist!
Starting today off with a chuckle I remain, harry j

[Darris Chambless]

DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner. Harry has discovered the hidden meaning behind what I found in Websters dictionary regarding neurocies and the word that started the whole thing in the first place.

Good job Harry! Keep up the good work :)

Take care,

Darris C.

PS. Yup Tom got a bum rap on the whole thing. In what I've read about the man and the scenario, there was no motive to have shot a boy in cold blood nor did they ever prove that he did it. The only thing they proved was that it was a bullet from the same caliber rifle and that he was in the same "county" at the time of the shooting. He was set up, but he did "hang" for it.