Plural of hangfire; multiple instances of delayed firearm discharge or metaphorical delays and suspenseful uncertainties.
Plural of hangfire, combining military terminology with the suffix '-s' for multiple occurrences. Used in both military and figurative contexts since at least the 1800s.
The term migrated from military jargon into everyday speech—now when people say a project is in 'hangfire,' they're using 19th-century weapons terminology to describe modern delays, showing how vividly military language shaped how we express uncertainty.
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