dmost; end, endmost; top, topmost; bottom, bottommost; mid_ or
_middle, midst,[181] midmost_ or _middlemost; north, northmost; south,
southmost; east, eastmost; west, westmost; northern, northernmost;
southern, southernmost; eastern, easternmost; western, westernmost_.

OBS. 2.--Many of these irregular words are not always used as adjectives,
but oftener as nouns, adverbs, or prepositions. The sense in which they are
employed, will show to what class they belong. The terms _fore_ and _hind,
front_ and _rear, right_ and _left, in_ and _out, high_ and _low, top_ and
_bottom, up_ and _down, upper_ and _under, mid_ and _after_, all but the
last pair, are in direct contrast with each other. Many of them are often
joined in composition with other words; and some, when used as adjectives
of place, are rarely separated from their nouns: as, _in_land, _out_house,
_mid_-sea, _after_-ages. Practice is here so capricious, I find it
difficult to determine whether the compounding of these terms is proper or
not. It is a case about which he that inquires most, may perhaps be most in
doubt. If the joining of the words prevents the possibility of mistaking
the adjective for a preposition, it prevents also the separate
classification of the adjective and the noun, and thus in some sense
destroys the former by making the whole a noun. Dr. Webster writes thus:
"FRONTROOM, _n._ A room or apartment in the _forepart_ of a house.
BACKROOM, _n._ A room behind the _front room_, or in the _back part_ of the
house."--_Octavo Dict._ So of many phrases by which people tell of turning
things, or changing the position of their parts; as, _in_side out,
_out_side _in; up_side _down, down_side _up_; _wrong_ end _foremost,
but_-end _foremost_; _fore_-part _back, fore_-end _aft_; _hind_ side
_before, back_side _before_. Here all these contrasted particles seem to be
adjectives of place or situation. What grammarians in general would choose
to call them, it is hard to say; probably, many would satisfy themselves
with calling the whole "_an adverbial phrase_,"--the common way of
disposing of every thing which it is difficult to analyze. These, and the
following examples from Scott, are a fair specimen of the uncertainty of
present usage:

"The herds without a keeper strayed,
The plough was in _mid-furrow_ staid."--_Lady of the Lake_.

"The eager huntsman knew his bound,
And in _mid chase_ called off his hound."--_Ibidem_.

OBS. 3.--For the