“Hanged” is an obsolete usage that persisted in legal contexts because people who practice law tend to be pedantic bores. It goes back to the 1500s. “Hung” is first attested a century later.
It’s one of the uncommon cases where an originally weak English verb (hang/hanged) morphed into a strong verb (hang/hung) in later usage.
I’ve always thought hanged was the correct term for past tense of hanging humans and hung was correct for other situations
“Hanged” is an obsolete usage that persisted in legal contexts because people who practice law tend to be pedantic bores. It goes back to the 1500s. “Hung” is first attested a century later.
It’s one of the uncommon cases where an originally weak English verb (hang/hanged) morphed into a strong verb (hang/hung) in later usage.