Etymograph

English

hanger

Hanger comes from Old Norse angr ‘sorrow, resentment, distress’, from Proto-Germanic *angazaz ‘worry, grief, anxiety’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- ‘to tighten’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂enǵʰ-1‘to tighten’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂énǵʰos1‘anxiety, suffering, grief’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*angazaz2‘worry, grief, anxiety’reconstructed
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350angr2‘sorrow, resentment, distress’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500anger3as hanger‘Grief, painfulness, or discomfort’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1751hanger3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *angazaz
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Middle English anger
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English hanger
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […]: “[H]is shoulder was graced with a broad buff belt,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂enǵʰ-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *angazaz‘to tighten’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂énǵʰosWiktionary, Proto-Germanic *angazaz‘anxiety, suffering, grief’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*angazazWiktionary, Middle English anger‘worry, grief, anxiety’reconstructed
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350angrWiktionary, Middle English anger‘sorrow, resentment, distress’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500angerWiktionary, English hangeras hanger‘Grief, painfulness, or discomfort’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1751hangerWiktionary, English hanger. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […]: “[H]is shoulder was graced with a broad buff belt,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- ‘to tighten’

anxiety, anxious, eng, anguish, angst, angina, 12 more

through Middle English anger ‘Grief, painfulness, or discomfort’

angry, angrily, 2 more

Today it means

noun One who hangs, or causes to be hanged; a hangman, paper hanger, etc.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hanger”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *angazaz, Middle English anger. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- / hanger

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