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 which they come, distinct words and different parts of speech, are made plural in English, by the addition of e or es at the end.  But, in all such cases, I think the hyphen should be inserted in the compound, though it is the practice of many to omit it.  Of this odd sort of words, I quote the following examples from Churchill; taking the liberty to insert the hyphen, which he omits:  “Ave-Maries, Te-Deums, camera-obscuras, agnus-castuses, habeas-corpuses, scire-faciases, hiccius-docciuses, hocus-pocuses, ignis-fatuuses, chef-d’oeuvres, conge-d’elires, flower-de-luces, louis-d’-ores, tete-a-tetes.”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. 62.