Test this in the following sentences:—­

     Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own
     so.—­EMERSON.

     And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, Succeeding sports
     the mirthful band inspired.—­GOLDSMITH.

     But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys
        Which I too keenly taste,
     The Solitary can despise.—­BURNS.

     All these, however, were mere terrors of the night.—­IRVING.

[Sidenote:  By ellipses, nouns used to modify.]

18.  Nouns used as descriptive terms.  Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add to its meaning, or describe it; for example, “a family quarrel,” “a New York bank,” “the State Bank Tax bill,” “a morning walk.”

It is evident that these approach very near to the function of adjectives.  But it is better to consider them as nouns, for these reasons:  they do not give up their identity as nouns; they do not express quality; they cannot be compared, as descriptive adjectives are.

They are more like the possessive noun, which belongs to another word, but is still a noun.  They may be regarded as elliptical expressions, meaning a walk in the morning, a bank in New York, a bill as to tax on the banks, etc.

NOTE.—­If the descriptive word be a material noun, it may be regarded as changed to an adjective.  The term “gold pen” conveys the same idea as “golden pen,” which contains a pure adjective.

WORDS AND WORD GROUPS USED AS NOUNS.

[Sidenote:  The noun may borrow from any part of speech, or from any expression.]

19.  Owing to the scarcity of distinctive forms, and to the consequent flexibility of English speech, words which are usually other parts of speech are often used as nouns; and various word groups may take the place of nouns by being used as nouns.

[Sidenote:  Adjectives, Conjunctions, Adverbs.]

(1) Other parts of speech used as nouns:—­

     The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow.—­BURNS.

     Every why hath a wherefore.—­SHAKESPEARE.

     When I was young?  Ah, woeful When! 
     Ah! for the change ’twixt Now and Then! 
     —­COLERIDGE.

(2) Certain word groups used like single nouns:—­

     Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.—­SHAKESPEARE.

     Then comes the “Why, sir!” and the “What then, sir?” and the
     “No, sir!” and the “You don’t see your way through the
     question, sir!”—­MACAULAY

(3) Any part of speech may be considered merely as a word, without reference to its function in the sentence; also titles of books are treated as simple nouns.