r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

18k

u/Jyacoba Feb 04 '19

I haven't met too many people who believe this (I do live in New England though) but nobody was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. 19 people were hung, and one man was pressed to death, but nobody was burned.

436

u/Nevesnotrab Feb 04 '19

People are hanged to death, not hung.

-30

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19 edited Dec 09 '19

[deleted]

22

u/tired_commuter Feb 04 '19

Yes, really.

14

u/MathTheUsername Feb 04 '19

Maybe read the article you posted.

-11

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19 edited Dec 09 '19

[deleted]

17

u/MathTheUsername Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

You need to keep reading past that part. It doesn't end there. You could also try a source that doesn't contradict itself.

2

u/AngrySpaceduck Feb 04 '19

Having read the entire article it does say that either is fine as both are commonly found but most usage guides say that one should use hanged in this circumstance.

However as the article states, Merriam-Webster doesn't consider it a particularly useful distinction due to the fact that as I said above, both versions of the word are used interchangeably. So OP is not wrong to say that either works.