gehangen

Gehangen is the past participle of the German verb hängen, meaning to hang. It denotes a state resulting from hanging and is used with the auxiliary haben to form perfect tenses. For example, Das Bild hat an der Wand gehangen expresses that the picture has been hanging on the wall.

In contrast to gehangen, the related verb aufhängen, meaning to hang up or suspend something, uses the participle aufgehängt (Ich habe das Bild aufgehängt). The distinction is that gehangen describes the ongoing state, while aufhängen describes the act of placing something in a hanging position.

The term also appears in contexts related to execution by hanging. In historical or literary prose, one might encounter phrases like wurde gehängt, meaning "was hanged." In some older or formal registers the noun form Gehangene or Gehängte can refer to a person who has been hanged, though more common terms for the individual in modern usage are different, such as der Hingerichtete.

Etymology traces gehangen to the Germanic language family; it is cognate with similar forms in related Germanic languages and shares the general semantic root with the English verb hang. The word is widespread in standard German and appears in everyday descriptions of objects that are suspended, as well as in historical or legal texts discussing capital punishment.