Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/521

 and Worcester, popeseye and sheep's-eye; Scott has pope's-eye and sheepseye; Webster, pope's-eye and sheep's-eye, bird-eye, and birds-eye. Ainsworth has goats beard, for the name of a plant; Johnson, goatbeard; Webster, goat-beard and goats-beard. Ainsworth has prince's feather, for the amaranth; Johnson, Chalmers, Walker, and Maunder, write it princes-feather; Webster and Worcester, princes'-feather; Bolles has it princesfeather: and here they are all wrong, for the word should be prince's-feather. There are hundreds more of such terms; all as uncertain in their orthography as these.

OBS. 31.--While discrepances like the foregoing abound in our best dictionaries, none of our grammars supply any hints tending to show which of these various forms we ought to prefer. Perhaps the following suggestions, together with the six Rules for the Figure of Words, in Part First, may enable the reader to decide these questions with sufficient accuracy. (1.) Two short radical nouns are apt to unite in a permanent compound, when the former, taking the sole accent, expresses the main purpose or chief characteristic of the thing named by the latter; as, teacup, sunbeam, daystar, horseman, sheepfold, houndfish, hourglass. (2.) Temporary compounds of a like nature may be formed with the hyphen, when there remain two accented syllables; as, ''castle-wall, bosom-friend, fellow-servant, horse-chestnut, goat-marjoram, marsh-marigold.'' (3.) The former of two nouns, if it be not plural, may be taken adjectively, in any relation that differs from apposition and from possession; as, "The silver cup,"--"The parent birds,"--"My pilgrim feet,"--"Thy hermit cell,"--"Two brother sergeants." (4.) The possessive case and its governing noun, combining to form a literal name, may be joined together without either hyphen or apostrophe: as, ''tradesman, ratsbane, doomsday, kinswoman, craftsmaster.'' (5.) The possessive case and its governing noun, combining to form a metaphorical name, should be written with both apostrophe and hyphen; as, ''Job's-tears, Jew's-ear, bear's-foot, colts-tooth, sheep's-head, crane's-bill, crab's-eyes, hound's-tongue, king's-spear, lady's-slipper, lady's-bedstraw'', &c. (6.) The possessive case and its governing noun, combining to form an adjective, whether literal or metaphorical, should generally be written with both apostrophe and hyphen; as, "Neats-foot oil,"--"Calfs-foot jelly,"--"A carp's-tongue drill,"--"A bird's-eye view,"--"The states'-rights' party,"--"A camel's-hair shawl." But a triple compound noun may be formed with one hyphen only: as, "In doomsday-book;" (--Joh. Dict.;) "An armsend-lift." Cardell, who will have all possessives to be adjectives, writes an example thus: "John's camel's hair girdle."--Elements of Eng. Gram., p. 39. That is as if John's camel had a hair girdle! (7.) When the possessive case and its governing noun merely help to form a regular phrase, the compounding of them in any fashion may be reckoned improper; thus the phrases, ''a day's work, at death's door, on New Year's Day, a new year's gift, All Souls' Day, All Saints' Day, All Fools' Day, the saints' bell, the heart's blood, for dog's meat'', though often written otherwise, may best stand as they do here.

OBS. 32.--The existence of a permanent compound of any two words, does not necessarily preclude the use of the possessive relation between the same words. Thus, we may speak of a horse's shoe or a goat's skin, notwithstanding there are such words as horseshoe and goatskin. E.g., "That preach ye upon the housetops."--ALGER'S BIBLE: Matt., x, 27. "Unpeg the basket on the house's top."--Beauties of Shak., p. 238. Webster defines frostnail, (which, under the word cork, he erroneously writes frost nail,) "A nail driven into a horse-shoe, to prevent the horse from slipping on ice." Worcester has it, "A nail driven into a horse's shoe, to prevent his slipping on the ice." Johnson, "A nail with a prominent head driven into the horse's shoes, that it may pierce the ice." Maunder, "A nail with a sharp head driven into the horses' shoes in frosty weather." None of these descriptions is very well written. Say rather, "A spur-headed nail driven into a horse's shoe to prevent him from slipping." There is commonly some difference, and sometimes a very great one, between the compound noun and the possessive relation, and also between the radical compound and that of the possessive. Thus a harelip is not a hare's lip, nor is a headman a headsman, or ''heart-ease heart's-ease. So, according to the books, a cat-head, a cat's-head'', and a cat's head, are three very different things; yet what Webster writes, cat-tail, Johnson, cats-tail, Walker and others, cats-tail, means but the same thing, though not a cat's tail. Johnson's "kingspear, Jews-ear, lady-mantle, and lady-bedstraw," are no more proper, than Webster's "bear's-wort, lion's foot, lady's mantle, and lady's bed-straw." All these are wrong.

OBS. 33.--Particular examples, both of proper distinction, and of blind irregularity, under all the heads above suggested, may be quoted and multiplied indefinitely, even from our highest literary authorities; but, since nothing can be settled but by the force of principles, he who would be accurate, must resort to rules,--must consider what is analogical, and, in all doubtful cases, give this the preference. But, in grammar, particular analogies are to be respected, as well as those which are more general. For example, the noun side, in that relation which should seem to require the preceding noun to be in the possessive case, is usually compounded with it, the hyphen being used where the compound has more than two syllables, but not with two only; as, ''bedside, hillside, roadside, wayside, seaside, river-side, water-side, mountain-side. Some instances of the separate construction occur, but they are rare: as, "And her maidens walked along by the river's side."--Exodus'', ii, 5. After this noun also, the possessive preposition of is sometimes omitted; as, "On this side the river;"(--Bible;) "On this side Trent."--Cowell. Better, "On this side of the river," &c. "Blind Bartimeus sat by the highway side, begging."--Mark, x, 46. Here Alger more properly writes "highway-side." In Rev., xiv, 20th, we have the unusual compound, "horse-bridles." The text ought to have been rendered, "even unto the horses' bridles." Latin, "usque ad frænos equorum." Greek, "[Greek: achri ton chalinon ton hippon]."

OBS. 34.--Correlatives, as father and son, husband and wife, naturally possess each other; hence