April Fool's day = April (Fool's day) or (April Fool)'s day

Question

Ok, that is a bad example :)

I was wondering how should I understand the phrases like April Fool's day. It could be understood in two ways, could it?

• April (Fool's day) - The day of Fool occurring in April.
• (April Fool)'s day - The day of April Fool.

How to know which one is the right one?

Answer 1

It's none of those, it's:

April Fools' Day

However, I understand it as a day for 'April Fools' rather than 'the day of Fools that occurs in April' because there is no Fools' day in any other month. And you can also call someone an April Fool.

Answer 2

If you must choose between them then take the latter, "(April Fool)'s day". But in fact there is always more than one April Fool, and 1st April is the day for all of them so

April Fools' day

which you can parse as "(April Fools)' day"

Answer 3

I've always taken it to mean either, which is part of the joy of the name.

Both "[You're an] April Fool" and "[Happy] Fools' Day" are quite acceptable.