n 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