"hang"

[NearThere]

I think it means a group of friends get together doing nothing much, like this,

"So what are yo gonna do there?"
"Well, not much, I'll just hang."

Is this slang always been around? or is it new or is it regional (western America)? Is that the right word, or did I catch it wrong? Thanks in advance.

[Ouisch]

"Hang" or "hanging" as a shortened form of "hang out" or "hanging out" has been commonly used in AmE since at least the 1980s. My evidence is strictly anecdotal, but when I was growing up in the 1970s most folks still said "hang out": "What are your plans today?" "Not much, probably just going to hang out with my friends." But I heard "hang" creep into the vernacular in the early 1980s and suddenly folks (at that time, usually younger folks) would reply instead "Not much, probably just going to hang with my friends." Today, people of all ages use "hang" in that context.

[5jj]

Today, people of all ages use "hang" in that context.

No we don't!

If I hear a person of my slightly-past-young age of 65 using such language, I suspect that they are trying to give the impression that they are hip, with it, in the swing, or whatever the current expression is.