a pea_ (_pfau_ or
_pavo_). In the same way _moorfowl_ means, not a _moor that is connected
with a fowl_, but a _fowl that is connected with a moor_.

s. 367. It must be clear that in every compound word there are, at least,
two parts; i.e., the whole or part of the original, and the whole or part
of the superadded word. In the most perfect forms of inflection, however,
there is a _third_ element, viz., a vowel, consonant, or syllable that
joins the first word with the second.

In the older forms of all the Gothic languages the presence of this third
element was the rule rather than the exception. In the present English it
exists in but few words.

a. The -a- in _black-a-moor_ is possibly such a connecting element.

b. The -in- in _night-in-gale_ is most probably such a connecting element.
Compare the German form _nacht-i-gale_, and remember the tendency of vowels
to take the sound of -ng before g.

s. 368. _Improper compounds._--The -s- in words like _Thur-s-day_,
_hunt-s-man_, may be one of two things.

a. It may be the sign of the genitive case, so that _Thursday_ = _Thoris
dies_. In this case the word is an _improper compound_, since it is like
the word _pater-familias_ in Latin, in a common state of syntactical
construction.

b. It may be a connecting sound, like the -i- in _nacht-i-gale_. Reasons
for this view occur in the following fact:--

In the modern German languages the genitive case of feminine nouns ends
otherwise than in -s. Nevertheless, the sound of -s- occurs in composition
equally, whether the noun it follows be masculine or feminine. This fact,
as far as it goes, makes it convenient to consider the sound in question as
a connective rather than a case. Probably, it is neither one nor the other
exactly, but the effect of a false analogy.

s. 369. _Decomposites._--"Composition is the joining together of _two_
words."--See s. 357.

Words like _mid-ship-man_, _gentle-man-like_, &c., where the number of
verbal elements seems to amount to _three_, are no exception to this rule;
since _compound radicals_ like _midship_ and _gentleman_, are, for the
purposes of composition, single words. Compounds wherein one element is
compound are called _decomposites_.

s. 370. There are a number of words which are never found by themselves;
or, if so found, have never the same sense that they have in _combination_.
Mark the word _combination_. The terms in question are points of
_combination_, not of composit