atherings,
downsittings, overflowings_, varying the last. So, in many instances, when
there is a less intimate connexion of the parts, and the words are written
with a hyphen, if not separately, we choose to vary the latter or last: as,
_fellow-servants, queen-consorts, three-per-cents, he-goats, she-bears,
jack-a-dandies, jack-a-lanterns, piano-fortes_. The following mode of
writing is irregular in two respects; first, because the words are
separated, and secondly, because both are varied: "Is it unreasonable to
say with John Wesley, that '_men buyers_ are exactly on a level with _men
stealers_?"--GOODELL'S LECT. II: _Liberator_, ix, 65. According to analogy,
it ought to be: "_Manbuyers_ are exactly on a level with _manstealers_." J.
W. Wright alleges, that, "The phrase, 'I want two _spoonfuls_ or
_handfuls_,' though common, is improperly constructed;" and that, "we
should say, 'Two _spoons_ or _hands full_.'"--_Philos. Gram._, p. 222. From
this opinion, I dissent: both authority and analogy favour the former mode
of expressing the plural of such quantities.

OBS. 22.--There is neither difficulty nor uncertainty respecting the proper
forms for the plurals of compound nouns in general; but the two irregular
words _man_ and _woman_ are often varied at the beginning of the looser
kind of compounds, contrary to what appears to be the general analogy of
similar words. Of the propriety of this, the reader may judge, when I shall
have quoted a few examples: "Besides their _man-servants_ and their
_maid-servants_."--_Nehemiah_, vii, 67. "And I have oxen and asses, flocks,
and _men-servants_, and _women-servants_."--_Gen._, xxxii, 5. "I gat me
_men-singers_, and _women-singers_, and the delights of the sons of
men."--_Ecclesiastes_, ii, 8. "And she brought forth a _man-child_, who was
to rule all nations with a rod of iron."--_Rev._, xii, 5.--"Why have ye
done this, and saved the _men-children_ alive?"--_Exod._, i, 18. Such terms
as these, if thought objectionable, may easily be avoided, by substituting
for the former part of the compound the separate adjective _male_ or
_female_; as, _male child, male children_. Or, for those of the third
example, one might say, "_singing men_ and _singing women_," as in
_Nehemiah_, vii, 67; for, in the ancient languages, the words are the same.
Alger compounds "_singing-men_ and _singing-women_."

OBS. 23.--Some foreign compound terms, consisting of what are usually, in
the language from whic