"gray fox heads" or "gray foxes' heads"

Question

The hunter hid the gray fox heads below the bed.
The hunter hid the gray foxes' heads below the bed.

I am wondering if gray fox can be singular or not. Is this ok to use the singular when used as an adjective?

I have a million questions. Why did the hunter decapitate two or more foxes? For what purpose did he hide their heads under the bed? For were it to escape detection, surely the smell and the blood seeping through the floorboards would reveal their whereabouts. If you had said furs that would have made more sense. C'est la vie, too late now to change. Everyone is talking about bodiless foxes... eww. — Mari-Lou A, May 10 '21 at 15:13
Does this answer your question? "the police conspiracy" vs. "the police's conspiracy" — ColleenV, May 10 '21 at 15:44
@Mari-LouA Maybe the heads had already been mounted by a taxidermist as a trophy? Maybe the hunter only hid the gray fox trophies because they were illegal to hunt and the game warden was coming for a visit. — ColleenV, May 10 '21 at 15:47
@ColleenV taxidermy, of course. Foxes heads mounted... you're a genius! Now I can sleep easy — Mari-Lou A, May 10 '21 at 16:16

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 10 '21 at 15:06

3

gray fox heads
gray foxes' heads

fox in example 1 is an attributive noun, which functions as an adjective.

foxes' in example 2 is a plural possessive noun.

Both noun phrases can be used to refer to a plural number of heads.

An attributive noun is a noun which modifies another noun—like 'singles' in the phrase 'singles bar'.

Merriam-Webster

edited May 10 '21 at 15:06

Void

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answered May 10 '21 at 14:15

Seowjooheng Singapore

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I think 'singles bar' appears relatively often in the context of modern texts describing attributive noun usages. A lot of grammarians / linguists recognise that although most attributive nouns are still singular, there's an increasing trend towards using plurals in such constructions. Which I'm sure is true, but I do have the feeling 'singles bar' (and 'sports car') are somewhat "over-cited" as typical examples. – FumbleFingers May 10 '21 at 15:36

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '21 at 14:39

There are many written instances of (singular attributive noun) the rotting fish heads in Google Books, but there's only one instance of (plural possessive) the rotting fishes' heads.

It's not exactly a hard-and-fast rule, and there seems to be no doubt it's becoming less of a rule in recent decades anyway, but to a first approximation it's still true that...

It is normal that the first or attributive noun of a sequence will be singular (says linguist / author Geoffrey Leech).

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered May 10 '21 at 12:54

If we are discussing a plural number of "heads", then the second sentence is correct. As there are several severed heads hidden somewhere. However your first sentence can be true if by "gray fox" you mean something like a title for a group or organization. And "heads" in such cases means "High officials", "authorities" or "key figures". Another thing is that when you are talking about making things hidden or covering something it is better to use "under" instead of "below". Since "below" is basically means positioned below something else and does not convey the urgency and secrecy of the action.

"gray fox heads" or "gray foxes' heads"

3 Answers3