Hanging

Hanging is caused when a person is held by a rope around the neck. The Oxford English Dictionary says that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck". Hanging is often used as a form of execution or suicide.

The first known account of execution by hanging was in Homer's Odyssey (Book XXII). In this meaning of the common word hang, the past and past participle is hanged instead of hung.