Hang

How to spell hang

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hang

What does hang mean?

1. verbTo attach or suspend something from above so it hangs freely below the point of support.
2. nounThe knack or skill of doing something, usually in the phrase 'the hang of it'.

Hang in a sentence

• verb

  Please hang your coat on the hook by the door.

• noun

  After a week of practice she finally got the hang of the new software.

• verb

  They decided to hang the new mirror above the fireplace.

• noun

  Driving the van felt awkward until he got the hang of it.

Where does hang come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Hang is a genuinely old native word, and its slightly tangled history comes from two related verbs in early English collapsing into one. Old English had hon, an intransitive verb meaning 'to be suspended', alongside hangian, meaning 'to suspend something', and both trace back to a shared Germanic root that also gave Dutch hangen and German hangen. The Old Norse hanga reinforced the word during the Viking settlement of England, which is part of why the verb stayed so firmly in the language. Over time the two old forms merged, leaving the modern verb with its famously irregular split: most things 'hung' on the wall, but a condemned person was 'hanged'. The spelling stayed mercifully simple, which is rare for a word this old, and it sits within the same family as the noun 'hangar' and the verb 'hinge'.

How the word is built

• hang (single Old English root verb, no affixes)