Hanging

How to spell hanging

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hanging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hanging mean?

1. adjectiveSuspended from above so that the lower part hangs freely.
2. nounA piece of cloth or tapestry hung on a wall as decoration.

Hanging in a sentence

• adjective

  The hanging basket of flowers brightened the porch.

• noun

  A woven hanging covered the bare stone wall of the hall.

• adjective

  A hanging lamp lit the dining table from the ceiling.

• noun

  She bought a colourful hanging for the living room.

Where does hanging come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word descends from Old English hangian and the related transitive hon, both meaning to suspend or be suspended, which trace back to a common Germanic root shared with Old Norse hanga and Dutch and German hangen. The original sense was simply the physical act of holding something up so that its lower part is free, and the spelling kept the single hard g of the verb stem. From the 1300s the term took on the grim noun meaning of an execution by suspending a person by the neck, and by later centuries it also named a piece of cloth or tapestry draped on a wall. Because the root verb ends in a single g preceded by a short vowel, the -ing form simply adds the suffix without doubling, giving hanging rather than the doubled form some writers expect. The same Germanic ancestor lies behind everyday relatives such as hanger and the past form hung.

How the word is built

• hang (Germanic root meaning to suspend)
• -ing (present participle / noun suffix)