SMALL PRINT:Ever since a public letter from eight of them was published yesterday, the plural compound noun "attorneys general" has been bandied about a lot. It's a conundrum that puzzles journalists, readers and grammar nerds: how does one pluralise compound nouns? If it's "attorneys general", then why not "teethbrush"?
David Minthorn is Associated Press's in-house style and grammar expert, and co-editor of The AP Stylebook, a publication that has advised on journalistic grammar since 1953. Minthorn says the guidance on plurals of compound words "puts the emphasis on the most significant word. That's the element that gets the plural." There are exceptions to the exceptions. Minthorn cites "cupfuls" and "handfuls" as examples.
The correct usage of "attorneys general"/"attorney generals" has long been debated. Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, includes "attorney generals" as a usage variation, according to Minthorn, although he opts for "attorneys general" in this case. The pluralisation of "general" in military usage is different, though, so "brigadier general" becomes "brigadier generals", not "brigadiers general", as in this case the "general" part of the compound is viewed as the leading noun.
“Putting the emphasis on the most significant word or description for the plural makes good sense to me,” says Minthorn. “The word location may be the first, in the middle or even the last word,” he says. Examples of such variations include “aides-de-camp” (plural in the first word), “deputy chiefs of staff” (the middle word) and “major generals” (the last word). This significant word in a compound noun is also known as the “head”.
In many cases it’s obvious what the head is, but a double head can also occur, meaning both words carry equal significance. In these instances, both words in the compound are pluralised, for example, “woman doctor” becomes “women doctors”. In instances of a triple compound, generally just the first word or head is pluralised and so “man-about-town” becomes “men-about-town”, not “men-about-towns”. Got it?
