Flights of fancy
Arguably one of the loveliest inventions of the English language are the collective names for animals:
A shrewdness of apes, an obstinacy of buffalo, a quiver of cobras, a murder of crows, a pietousness of doves, a busyness of ferrets, a charm of finches, a smack of jellyfish, an exultation of larks, an unkindness of ravens, a crash of rhinos, a murmuration of starlings, a lamentation of swans…
The fact that many aren’t commonly used – having been coined in books like Joseph Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes of England, smiled at then forgotten – is a pity. So damn charming, they warrant being memorised and worked into the conversation as often as possible. What ho, is that a sounder of wild boar coming our way, or is it just your mother’s day to visit?
More curious still is that we haven’t come up with many good collective nouns for people. And so to get the ball rolling:
A bloat of politicians
A giggle of girls
A hush of librarians
An apathy of teens
A resignation of workers
A reverence of geeks
A parliament of drunks
A stare of junkies
A pandemonium of toddlers…
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Comment
- What a compelling challenge to wake up to. I’ve included a few animals too.
a shrug of clerks
a rash of tourists
a sprinkling of dingbats
a puff of poets
a startling of gamins
a beggering of dogs
a tumbling of puppies
a rumple of geeks
a boast of senators
a wag of congressmen
a sneering of bureaucrats
a stammer of freshmen
a gloss of trophy wives
a snivel of administrators
a huff of inlaws
a cackle of old broads
a rush of Aries
an exasperation of girls
a clog of plumbers
a clot of phlebotomists
a snarl of small dogs
a harem of pigeons
a confusion of ducks
a complaint of chickens
a sigh of old maids
a sluggery of sea lions
a congress of trout
a senate of baboons
— wizmo Sep 16, 4:56pm # - a bristle of CEOs
a clod of infants
an obsession of females
— moizza Sep 16, 4:58pm # - A haircut of footballers
— Julian Sep 16, 10:33pm # - a darkness of goths
an anarchy of punks
a snuggle of rabbits
— Crafty Green Poet Sep 17, 2:35pm # - A block of writers
A spell of editors
A brush of painters
— ali Sep 17, 3:31pm # - a pallor of sysadmins
a sip of venture capitalists
a fucking fuck of Gordon Ramsays
— Dean Allen Sep 17, 7:48pm # - Oh, I forgot to add:
A meme of bloggers
— ali Sep 18, 12:35am # - a fonthaus of typographers
a black turtleneck of designers
a sneeze of dustmites
an insolence, like, of tweenagers
a buzz of bees
a meteor, oops, metre of orchestral conductors
an assle of hassles
a haunt of phantoms
— sue Sep 18, 5:21am # - I’m kind of ashamed to admit this particular coinage, but… I have this tendency to date girls that aren’t entirely straight (in the sense that I don’t date them because of their sexual preference), so much so to the point that my friends now declare that I am now possessed of the following:
a gaggle of bisexual girlfriends
— August Sep 18, 7:15am # - a lasso of landlords
an inkling of squid
a slurp of slushees
a smurk of bank tellers
a tootle of truck drivers
a touché of translators
— Mara B Sep 18, 9:01am # - A haggle of shoppers.
— marshall Sep 18, 6:45pm # - A sky of Smurfs.
A pattern of printers.
A path of vertices.
A charge of electrons.
— Willem Sep 18, 8:14pm # - a debacle of managers
and
a disgruntle of employees…
— nikii Sep 19, 1:26am # - a smarm of celebrities
a wince of dental patients
an obsequy of servants
— Peter Sep 19, 1:55pm # - a shimmy of conductors
oops just seen you’ve got a group of those. depends on their style anyway, or lack of. could also be
a trip of conductors
a waggle of conductors.
yes I’ve got it in for conductors right now. thanks for the outlet.
xx
— ruth Sep 20, 5:45pm # - Theatrically speaking:
a complaint of actors
a solitary of directors
a bulge of fight directors
a problem of stage managers
a torture of playwrights
— moj Sep 22, 5:35am # - a collective of nouns?
what would one call such a collection of collective nouns?
a metonymy of collectives
a random of collectives
— roger Sep 22, 7:32am # - a finger of urologists
a shimmy of strippers
a pyramid of acrobats
a pep of cheerleaders
a swindle of financial advisors
a blur of diplomats
a binge of alcoholics
a house of crack addicts
a probability of actuaries
a plaque of dental hygienists
a spray of exterminators
a blaze of arsonists
a swoon of silent film actresses
a hive of allergy sufferers
a concussion of boxers
a flash of exhibitionists
a tremor of seismologists
a shock of electricians
a tree of genealogists
— mig Sep 27, 7:45am # - As regards CEOs, I rather suggest
A chaingang of CEOs or
A cellfull of CEOs.
I’m surprised nobody has suggested a collective for translators:
A solitary of translators
or
A Jerome of translators
— Riccardo Sep 28, 6:53am # - Riccardo has a point. Personally, however, I would go for “A wordcount of translators”.
— Fran Sep 29, 11:10am # - Rebecca Blood has a collection of goth group names. My favorite is actually the name for when there is NO group of goths present: an absinthe of goths.
http://www.rebeccablood.net/goth.html
(scroll down)
— Amy Oct 27, 3:04pm #
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