March 25, 2007
UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS:
A convocation of eagles: A parliament of owls? A clowder of cats? When two or more animals of the same species congregate, it can be quite a 'romp.' (Robert Klose, 3/26/07, CS Monitor)
Just the other morning, while working at the computer, my 10-year-old son and I stumbled upon a website listing collective names for animals. Anton's response was the same as mine had been when I first discovered this peculiarity of the language as a child: He was captivated.Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2007 8:57 PMA brace of ducks, a gaggle of geese, a kindle of kittens, and on and on. We immediately commenced a spontaneous census of the wildlife about our house here in central Maine, in terms of collective nouns.
A babble of journalists.
An obfuscation of lawyers.
A depravity of celebrities.
A surrender of Frenchmen.
A mediocre of Canadians.
A pretention of intellectuals.
A lineup of basketball players. (also applies to rap artists).
A flounce of fashion designers.
A muddle of computer programmers.
A wallow of protestors.
A shuffle of bureaucrats.
A #%^!*&% of pigeons.
Posted by: Rick T. at March 26, 2007 8:58 AMRaul:
It's a "slack of developers" where I sit. :-)
A stink of hippies.
A stagger of Kennedys.
An unemployment of young Europeans.
A blizzard of global warming.
A guano of DNC press releases.
When I was living in Germany as a student, a friend's mother told me that she was learning English in class and that they were currently learning about groups of animals.
At first, I could confirm for her the most common group names, but soon realized I had no idea what most of them were. I told her that after the most common names, she could use "flock" for anything that flew, "pack" for anything on land, and "school" for anything that swim, and most Americans wouldn't notice anything wrong.
It's a peculiar feature of our language.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at March 26, 2007 10:42 AM