Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor - New Book

[M. Demetrius]

Look at the title to this thread. In that instance, "linen" is used as an adjective--telling us "what kind of" armor, but it can also be used as a noun [for example, "Linen is a type of cloth or fiber produced from the flax plant."]. I guess it's the same thing as the argument made about the same word root in Greek, isn't it? Greek has the advantage of word endings which give us the clue about which way a word is being used.

Back in the old days, they taught us to identify parts of speech by a process called "diagramming sentences". They don't seem to teach that any more. Pity.