Other forms: hangers
A hanger is the wire or wooden shape a shirt hangs on. A coat hanger, wire hangers, on a hanger.
The shoulder shape is the whole point: it keeps the garment in the form it will be worn in. Wooden hangers hold weight better than wire ones, which is why suits get them. Note the spelling pair — a hanger holds clothes and a hangar holds aircraft, and the two are constantly swapped; and hanger-on, meaning somebody who attaches themselves to a person of importance.
1nounhangerThe shape a garment hangs on.
“Hang your coat on a hanger so it doesn't get creased.”
hanger is a clothes fitting.
Hang plus -er, attested in Middle English. The aircraft hangar is a different word, from French, and the two spellings have never stopped being confused.
Middle English
hanger
English, today
hanger
Middle English hanger, haunger, hangere, equivalent to hang + er. Cognate with West Frisian hinger (“hanger”), Dutch hanger (“hanger”), German Hänger (“hanger”), Henker (“hangman”), Danish hænger (“hanger”), Norwegian henger (“hanger”), Swedish hängare (“hanger”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA