Yesterday I finished reading Watership Down, which I loved. In it, the word hanger is used. The warren is near Nuthanger Farm, and there is a quote from Jane Austen in which she refers to a Northanger (sp.?) Farm; and in a couple of places in the book, the rabbits run into or through a hanger.

What IS a hanger, please, in this sense?

4. (England): A steep, wooded declivity. [wiktionary]

The English Collins Dictionary gives more specifically:
- a wood on a steep hillside, characteristically beech growing on chalk in Southern England. (True Watership Down landscape )

I looked for a connection with the word 'hangar' but there seems to be none.

a wood on a steep hillside

Old English hnot is 'bald, smooth' and hnutu 'nut' (link). -(h)anger toponymically means 'a meadow or grassplot, usually by the side of the road' (link). One wonders if the -th- represents a /θ/ or a /t/. Nut-hanger or Nothing-er.

[Edited typo.]

Old English is really very 'cool '.
Ha! hundeahtotigan = eighty . Wonderful pages!

hundeahtotigan = eighty

Somehow I smell a hint of Octogenarian in there!

Nut-hander or Nothing-er. Yep. This reminded me of a Lapine (rabbit-speak) word in the book that I wondered about the pronunciation of all through; and I believe that I was mispronouncing it in my head: silflay. I tended to think "sil-flay"; but the glossary said that silf means "eat" (silflay = eating outside), so I reckon the author intended it to be pronounced silf-lay.

Thanks all for the info. on hanger.