Subnostr

hang (v.)

a fusion of Old English hon "suspend" (transitive, class VII strong verb; past tense heng, past participle hangen), and Old English hangian "be suspended" (intransitive, weak, past tense hangode); also probably influenced by Old Norse hengja "suspend," & hanga "be suspended." All from Proto-Germanic *hanhan (transitive), *hanganan (intransitive) "to hang" (source also of Old Frisian hangia, Dutch hangen, German hängen), from PIE *konk- "to hang" (source also of Gothic hahan, Hittite gang- "to hang," Sanskrit sankate "wavers," Latin cunctari "to delay;" see also second element in Stonehenge).

nobody 1y ago

Stonehenge (n.)

"celebrated stone circle on Salisbury Plain" [OED], early 12c., Stanenges, literally "stone gallows," perhaps so called from fancied resemblance to old-style gallows with two posts; from stone (n.) + second element related to hang (v.).

Some antiquarians suggest the notion may be of "supported in the air, that which hangs in the air" (compare henge-clif for Latin præruptum), in reference to the lintel stones, but the order of the elements and the inflection is against this.

The thing itself is from a time immemorial to the earliest Germanic writings. An ancient common name for it was the Giant's Dance. In Middle English a stonehenge also was a device for clamping stones together.

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