Hanging out

Jul 26 03:01 UTC 1999

Jim wonders first, what the verb 'hang out' means, and asks for specific
examples of this activity.  Is it a mobile or stationery activity, and can
it be done by one person or does it require company?
Second, can it be used in all tenses.  Please fill in the following:
I often hang out at....
I am hanging out at .....
I will hang out at ...
I will be hanging out at ...
I was hanging out at....
I hung out yesterday at ....
I used to hang out at ....
I have hung out at....
(In other words, are any of the above impossible?).
Must the verb always be followed by a place, or a co-hanger-out, or can you
say something like 'I like to hang out'.
What exactly does someone do when hanging out?  Talk?  Watch cars go by?
Play music?  Drink coffee?  Do something constructive?  Homework?
Does one hang out while seated, standing, riding in a car?

response 2 of 44:

Jul 26 03:45 UTC 1999

I don't agree that one person can't hang out.

response 4 of 44:

Jul 26 09:06 UTC 1999

Hanging out is also associated with loitering...it just sounds better.  ;-)
Dan has it when he says that hanging out isn't really a specific activity.
To hang out means wait around and observe other happenings until you decide
to become part of the action.  Another example would be "hanging out at the
mall".  This usually insinuates that you are simply browsing or walking while
waiting for a movie to start or whatever, whereas shopping at the mall is not
considered hanging out.  Hanging out is also a kind of lazy activity.  To walk
around a mall doesn't take a lot of effort, you don't really have a plan, and
you take notice of more things.  Shopping has a plan, a purpose, a
destination.

FWIW, I hate shopping AND hanging out at the mall.  It was just easy to
illustrate.  =)

response 6 of 44:

Jul 26 12:45 UTC 1999

So if we are fixing radios at Kiwanis every day, we cannot tell someone that
we hang out at Kiwanis frequently?

response 8 of 44:

Jul 26 13:10 UTC 1999

For me at least, 'hanging out' generally doesn't involve doing anything
horribly productive.  I would consider fixing radios, or working, rather
productive, and thus not hanging out.  As someone else said, it's kind
of the period where you decide- spur of the moment to do something, or
just are there... Like I can say I was hanging out with Jiffer the other
night, that doesn't tell you exactly what we did, but it gives the
impression that it wasn't anything exactly productive.

response 10 of 44:

Jul 26 16:43 UTC 1999

        Fixing radios sounds pretty productive to me. :)  Now if you're sort
of fixing radios for ten or fifteen minutes out of the hour, and talking or
playing around for the rest, then it'd be closer to the definition of "hanging
out" that I understand.

response 12 of 44:

Jul 26 17:36 UTC 1999

        The fixing  could be impromptu goof-off fixing,
        and you could be  hanging out with some radios and tools.

response 14 of 44:

Jul 26 18:10 UTC 1999

        One could not help but imagine a possible relation
        to surfing's "hanging five" and "hanging ten" as
        pointed examples of nonchalant grace. But the
        online Merriam-Webster dates "hang around", 
        as in aimless loitering, amazingly, to the
        1830's. Further, the tradesman's "hanging out"
        a shingle is dated to the 14th century, and seems
        related to acquired skill, as in "getting the hang"
        of a certain activity.

        But we must delve further into the presumably
        Germanic roots of the main verb "hang", as in
        what a bat does.

        We would be remiss to also not include "hangout",
        a place for spending time, dated by m-w to 1893.

        Wish I knew a better site to look up etymologies.
        Sure enough, old English/German "hangen" is in the
        ancestry.

        Further one cannot ignore the short form,
        to simply hang, as a more current emphasis
        on the leisurely focus of the activity. Also
        time or duration is always involved, one
        cannot hang for an instant, a painting hung
        on the wall must stay there, and we speak
        of "hang time".

        I gotta go.

response 16 of 44:

Jul 26 18:31 UTC 1999

It means to calm down, in some instances... Like "dude, chill out!" if
someone is getting over-excited about something, or if a parental type
is throwing a fit cause kid was out til three in the morning- kid
(foolish ones) might tell the parent to 'chill out.' So pretty much
it's calm down, or relax.  Using the relax idea I could say "I was 
chillin with Joe last night" meaning we were hanging out. <laughs>
Or just watching tv and relaxing... something along those lines.

response 18 of 44:

Jul 26 20:43 UTC 1999

   i work (do productive, income-earning things) at ans.  i hang out
(do not necessarily productive, recreational/conversational things)
at denny's ferquently.  i hardly ever get riled up enough that my
friends or co-workers have to tell me to chill out.  :)

response 20 of 44:

Jul 26 22:47 UTC 1999

I define it as someplace else.  Being home is just, well...being home.  =)
You can hang out at *other* houses, though.  

response 22 of 44:

Jul 27 16:23 UTC 1999

   hanging out can be done at home, depending on what you're doing.  if
i'm doing housework or making stuff it's not hanging out.  playing video
games, reading and drinking coffee, surfing the web, dinking around with
other stuff all count as hanging out.

(and that should have been "frequently" in resp:18.  i can spell, i just
can't type.  ;)

response 24 of 44:

Jul 27 18:11 UTC 1999

Jim asks if he can chill out in a hot tub.
Please define 'dinking around' and give more examples of usage.