# Old English: foran-hēafde/hēafod



## Chantal-Mary

If I want to analyse a compound noun (concerning gender, case, number and declension) like

_foran-hēafde_ in Old English, which of the two nouns is the head noun?


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## Dib

It's like in German. Normally the last element in the compound is the (grammatical) head. So, _foran-hēafde _should be the dative singular of the neuter noun _foran-hēafod_. as dictated by "_hēafod_". There may well be some exceptions (compare the genders of German Gegenteil and Anteil), but I don't know much in details about this.


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## berndf

Dib said:


> There may well be some exceptions (compare the genders of German Gegenteil and Anteil), but I don't know much in details about this.


That isn't an exception. There is _das Teil _and _der Teil _with complementary meanings: _das Teil _is an individual piece of a group of distinct objects and _der Teil _is a part of a whole. So, e.g. a _spare part_ is _das Ersatzteil_ and the _front part_ of your house is _der Vorderteil_. And that is also the reason why it is_ das Gegenteil_ and _der Anteil_.


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## Dib

Cool! That explains all the "das Teil" I saw at German marketplaces! Thanks a lot!


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## Herefordian

The only exception I can think of is "die Handvoll", and that's because "voll" is not a noun.


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