Parts of speech and the post inebriated state

Parts of speech and the post inebriated state

  • Hangover, Hungover

    Votes: 5 55.6%

  • Hangover, Hangedover

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Pie?

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Steak and ale pie!

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • Total voters
    9
BlackSpy

BlackSpy

Tsrgoihrea,
20 Year Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Posts
2,959
While sitting here staring blankly at the wall and considering my folly over the last two weeks I began to think. Not past the aching slab of pain at the front of my brain but about it.

Popularly, this is a hangover and the condition of having a hangover is to be hungover. Considering the words and their etymology I was led to the well known distinction between meat and man. That is, meat is hung and a man is hanged (usually till dead).

Given this, should the correct word be hangover and hangedover?
 
tsukaesugi

tsukaesugi

Holy shit, it's a ninja!,
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Posts
6,933
*ahem* as our resident linguist, I think I can answer this one.

The 'hang' in hangover refers to the inebriated condition holding, or 'hanging' over from the night before. As such, it would be an intransitive verb (a verb with no direct object i.e. 'he walked') as opposed to a transitive one (a verb with a direct object, i.e. 'he drank beer').

The intransitive past participle of hang is 'hung', and thus we say 'hungover'.

On a related note, the transitive verb 'to hang someone (by the neck)', is a different verb from the transitive 'to hang something up', and can indeed take a different past participle (hanged).

hang (KILL)
verb [I or T] hanged or hung, hanged or hung
to kill someone, especially as punishment for a serious crime, by dropping them with a rope tied around their neck, or to die in this way

Class dismissed!
 
tsukaesugi

tsukaesugi

Holy shit, it's a ninja!,
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Posts
6,933
shir0 said:
That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

Shut Up. Please.

Later

shir0
Click to expand...

As stupid as... oh, I don't know... 'I have OCD and can't stop typing Later Shir0 at the end of all my posts'?

Heh.

Later

tsuk4
 
TheBigBB

TheBigBB

Formerly known as dmhawkmoon
Joined
May 5, 2002
Posts
6,152
tsukaesugi said:
As stupid as... oh, I don't know... 'I have OCD and can't stop typing Later Shir0 at the end of all my posts'?

Heh.

Later

tsuk4
Click to expand...

ROFL
 
BoriquaSNK

BoriquaSNK

His Excellency BoriquaSNK,, The Ambassador of Appl
15 Year Member
Joined
May 9, 2003
Posts
4,705
tsukaesugi said:
*ahem* as our resident linguist, I think I can answer this one.

The 'hang' in hangover refers to the inebriated condition holding, or 'hanging' over from the night before. As such, it would be an intransitive verb (a verb with no direct object i.e. 'he walked') as opposed to a transitive one (a verb with a direct object, i.e. 'he drank beer').

The intransitive past participle of hang is 'hung', and thus we say 'hungover'.

On a related note, the transitive verb 'to hang someone (by the neck)', is a different verb from the transitive 'to hang something up', and can indeed take a different past participle (hanged).

hang (KILL)
verb [I or T] hanged or hung, hanged or hung
to kill someone, especially as punishment for a serious crime, by dropping them with a rope tied around their neck, or to die in this way

Class dismissed!
Click to expand...

I actually found that quite interesting. Thanks for the lesson Prof.
 
tsukaesugi

tsukaesugi

Holy shit, it's a ninja!,
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Posts
6,933
BoriquaSNK said:
I actually found that quite interesting. Thanks for the lesson Prof.
Click to expand...

...and thank you for the compliment. It was a pretty interesting question. Plus I just finished a 30 page paper on 'Systemic Functional Grammar' so I've still got grammar on the brain... :loco:
 
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