henken
German
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old High German henken, an Upper German variant of hengen. The verb originally meant “to hang” in general, but was restricted to the context of execution in the modern written language. See hängen for more.
Pronunciation
Verb
Usage notes
- Inflected forms in which the stem henk- is followed by a consonant are—according to any not stilted pronunciation—homophonous with the corresponding forms of hängen, and can therefore be considered spelling variants of the latter. Some writers may use the spelling henk- instead of häng- because it is suggestive of Henker (“hangman”).
- Those forms in which the stem henk- is not followed by a consonant (henk, henke, henken, henkend) are audibly distinct from hängen. These are rarely used anymore.
Conjugation
Synonyms
- hängen (etymology 2)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “henken” in Duden online
Japanese
Romanization
henken