I am very glad you asked, as it is so rare that one is given the chance to quote James Buchanan’s 1767 work, A Regular English Syntax (he wrote “It’s for it is is vulgar; ’tis is used”)
The role of the apostrophe has always been in flux. People used to use it for possessive pronouns (her’s), and now we don’t. Except when we do (a room of one’s own).
Some people used to use it’s in the genitive, indicating possession, and now we consider that a mistake. 50 years from now we might collectively change our minds, and go back to its, or Buchanan’s ’tis.
For no reason at all, here is a guide to British noble titles:
‘Prince’ comes from the Latin word that literally means “one who takes the first part.”
It shares its ultimate Latin root with words that denote firstness, like ‘principal’ and ‘prime’ and ‘primary.’
By tradition, only those born into the royal family can use ‘prince’ or ’princess.’
Even though many people refer to ‘Princess Diana,’ the title of ‘princess’ should properly come after her name, since she was not born into the royal family.
“Diana, Princess of Wales”
The title of Prince Philip, was the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. He was also known as the ‘prince consort’ (husband of a reigning queen).
These peculiar titles with adjectives that follow the nouns are a byproduct of the French-speaking Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066.
Rudolph gets all the love so let’s talk about the names of Santa’s other reindeer.
dasher | noun | one that dashes
dancer | noun | one that dances
prancer | noun | one that walks or moves in a spirited manner
Ok, those three are easy to understand.
Now, we get to ‘Vixen.’ ‘vixen’ is a noun and has 3 senses.
1. a female fox 2. a shrewish, ill-tempered woman 3. a sexually attractive woman
Ummm, what’s going on here, Santa?
comet | noun | a celestial body that appears as a fuzzy head usually surrounding a bright nucleus, that has a usually highly eccentric orbit, that consists primarily of ice and dust, and that often develops one or more long tails when near the sun