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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 chief points of the compass, we have so many adjectives, and so many modes of varying or comparing them, that it is difficult to tell their number, or to know which to choose in practice. (1.) _North, south, east_, and west, are familiarly used both as nouns and as adjectives. From these it seems not improper to form superlatives, as above, by adding _most_; as, "From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild of southmost Abarim."--Milton. "There are no rivulets or springs in the island of Feror, the westmost of the Canaries."--_White's Nat. Hist._ (2.) These primitive terms may also be compared, in all three of the degrees, by the adverbs farther and farthest, or further and _furthest_; as, "Which is yet farther west."--B