Etymologically
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hanger

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhæŋə/[1]
  • US: /hæŋɚ/, /heɪŋɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English hang + -er,[2][3][4][5] as late Middle English hangere.[6] An Old English hangra (“a wood on the side of a steep hill”), also derived from hangian (“to hang”),[2][7][8] survives in the same sense and is now identified with the agent noun in form and feeling.[2][3] The short sword called a hanger is apparently the same word, named from being hung from the belt, though the OED and the Shorter Oxford compare early modern Dutch hangher (“rapier”) as a possible immediate source.[2][3][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who puts a person to death by hanging, or has him hanged: about 1430, in the Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode.[2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century, as "one who hangs something", especially an executioner.[4] The Old English hangra is recorded in charter boundaries: Bosworth–Toller's supplement corrects its gloss to "a wood on a hill-side",[10] and Middendorff counts it in more than thirty wood names.[11]

Semantic evolution

From the late 15th century a hanger was also something hanging down, such as a piece of tapestry, a pendant or a hat-band.[2][4] A short sword, originally hung from the belt, is recorded from the 1480s.[2] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: that by which a thing hangs, as pot hangers, and a short broad sword.[12] The loop or strap on a sword belt from which the sword hung is recorded from 1599.[2] The sense "a contrivance from which something is hung" is dated from the 1690s by Etymonline,[4] and wooden or wire coat and dress hangers from 1873.[4] Someone who hangs things, as in paperhanger or bellhanger, or who selects and hangs pictures at an exhibition, is recorded from 1791.[2][4] In southern English dialect, a hanger is still a wood on a steep hillside;[13] Gilbert White and Cobbett used the word in Hampshire,[13] and Collins describes it as typically beech on chalk.[14] In other dialects it was a pothook over the fire, or a hinge.[13] In slang, hangers were the testicles, from 1622.[15]

Timeline

  • Old English – hangra, a wood on a steep hillside, in charters.[2][10]
  • c. 1430 – an executioner, one who hangs people.[2][4]
  • 1481 – a short sword hung from the belt.[2]
  • before 1483 – a piece of hanging tapestry (obsolete by 1565).[2]
  • 1540s – hanger-on.[4]
  • 1599 – a strap on a sword belt from which the sword hangs.[2]
  • 1631 – in mining, the rock over a lode.[2]
  • 1690s – a thing from which something is hung.[4]
  • 1791 – one who hangs things, as pictures at an exhibition.[2]
  • 1873 – a coat or dress hanger of wood or wire.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shaped piece of wood, wire or plastic with a hook, on which clothes are hung; a coat hanger.[14][5]
  2. Any hook, strap, loop or other support from which something is hung.[14][5][2]
  3. A person who hangs something, chiefly in compounds such as paperhanger.[14][5][2]
  4. A bracket that attaches one part of a structure or machine to another.[14][5]
  5. (British) A wood on a steep hillside.[14][5][2]
  6. (historical) A short sword, originally hung from the belt.[2][3][12]
  7. (historical) A loop or strap on a sword belt from which a sword hung.[14][2]

Word family

  • bellhanger
  • cliffhanger
  • crapehanger
  • crepehanger
  • straphanger
  • hanger-on
  • paperhanger
  • hanger steak

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  11. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com