Crazy collective nouns & where they came from
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- Опубліковано 17 гру 2022
- Let's explore English's many weird collective nouns! And remember to head to squarespace.com/robwords to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code "robwords".
🥚 A gaggle of geese
📊 A business of ferrets
🎓 A school of fish
🔪 A murder of crows
🦊 A skulk of foxes
⏱ An impatience of wives (seriously)
Where on earth did we get all of these strange words for groups of things? Find out in this latest RobWords, where we do some of our own linguistic archaeology.
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What do you call a crow sitting by itself? Attempted murder.
A pair of crows actually. A crow is just a crow (or possibly a manslaughter). Two crows are an attempted murder and three crows or more are a murder. 😁
No one crow innocent.
This brings to mind that old country saying, "see one rook by 'is self, he be a crow; see a flock of crows, they be rooks". Which suggests a murder of crows is an oxymoron (except during the mating season).
A suicide risk perhaps?
Attempted murder - as shown in the video at 12:43
As a ferret owner, can confirm most ferret owners DO refer to a group of ferrets as a business. Even if it's just 2 (in which case they usually call themselves a “small business owner” as a joke)
😂🤣😅 I love it
This is freaking adorable
@@anastasiafalcon4637 we dont eat þe ferrets falcon.🤣👍
So. one ferret would be a sole proprietorship?
@@CAMacKenzie honestly either way it's more like a busyness than a business
When I was in the hotel industry, some of us made up some appropriate 'trade' collectives for fun. We had a decision of managers, a booking of receptionists, a recipe of cooks, a service of waiters, a round of barmen, a cleanse of housekeepers and so on. 😅
That is truly amazing and clever 😂 thanks for sharing!
as valid a collection as a pride of lions or a coven of witches. good work, well done.
how about a fine of ticket inspectors?
A sweeping of janitors and a wrenching of maintenance workers
Anger of Arabs?
Thai doesn't really do exactly this, but a standard feature of the language is that there are words called classifiers which are required whenever you want to talk about a quantity of something. So for instance, if I wanted to say "there are 5 children here" in Thai it would come out something like "here have children 5 people", where the word people here is the classifier for groups of people. This can lead to some unintended humor for English speakers learning Thai, especially because sometimes the classifier for one type of things can sound the same as a noun with an entirely different meaning. For instance, the word for children sounds the same as the classifier for small round objects. So if you want to ask a Thai man how many children he has, "you have children how many people?", but instead use English grammer, "you have how many children (small round objects)?", he will almost certainly say "two!", probably with a straight face. Then he'll crack up.
I still remember in the adult animated show with anthropomorphic animals Bojack Horseman, one character at a formal party is taking to a ferret alone and ends the chat with "I'll let you get back to your business." as the character rejoins other ferrets and I smiled sooooo much
I just had to reply because you have the same name as me.
Is the collective noun of lesbians a lick? Or was someone just pulling my leg.
I didn't catch up that one when I was watching the series! The writers are truly geniuses
A handful of wankers.
An absence of waiters is still one of my favorites
😅
Thanks for the tip
Here in germany the most absent employes are the staff of hardware stores😂
I found out that a gaggle of geese is only referenced to them together on the ground. When geese are in flight they are referred collectively as a ‘skein’ 😅 I also like a flamboyance of flamingos.
Yes and on the water, they are called a "raft."
I enjoy the phrase "consortium of octopuses". I can imagine them concenting to work together and then "shaking hands".
Even better: “consortium of octopi”
If any animal deserves a such an impressive word as consortium. I’m glad it’s the octopus.
My favorite is "a complaint of Karens", but "a superfluity of nuns" is a close second now! 😂
Actually, a group of Karens is called a Homeowners Association.
How about a sorry of Canadians?
A drunk of Irish!!!
@@andresfontalvo17 That's cute, and harsh.
A tangle of octopi?
An extinction of dinosaurs?
A parliament of idiots?
A stagger of drunks or a vomit of drunks?
A whining of millennials?
A pile up of cars? A rusting of cars where I live.
A grating of cell phones? Their constant ringing, dinging and buzzing quickly start grating on my nerves, maybe because no one ever calls me.
A singling of loners? Only seen at comic conventions or Magic the Gathering tournaments. Maybe a stink of nerds?
For what it's worth, when I lived in Namibia, "crash" was the word that everyone used to describe a group of Rhinos. I've heard it quite often.
As a Zimbabwean, I have too.
That is the formal English term for a group of Rhinos.
Motswana here, same.
For what it's worth, though I'm not from a place with enough to say myself, I heard it used ages ago. Before any of this make-up-your-own got popular
The crash or the term? Haha
"An Exaltation of Larks," by James Lipton, was first published in 1968. It includes gems such as a "singularity of boars," a "nye of pheasants," a "badling of ducks," a "fall of woodcock" and a "wisp of snipe."
The medieval manuscript has Exalting of Larks.
Are they indeed suggesting "singularity" to denote a multitude of something? So weird! Or is it suggesting that boars are so compact that when they meet, they create a black hole?
I think it's because boors are alone as much as others can help it. 🤣@@mumiemonstret
I heard of "a crash of rhinos" and "a clowder of cats" as a child in the 70s, obviously pre internet. I remember because I was young enough to imagine the crashing sound rhinos might make attacking each other and thinking "clowder" and "chowder" were the same and being all upset about cat soup.
IDK why but people seem to forget that humor has been around a long time, and would make it into print. I guess we think paper, writing, and even being able to read were so scarce that it wouldn't be wasted on nonsense.
One of my teachers told us this.
According to an old joke, four Oxford dons, each of them expert in a different field, were taking a walk in the city of dreaming spires. When they passed a group of prostitutes, the first exclaimed: “A jam of tarts!” The second, a musicologist: “A flourish of strumpets.” The third, a scholar of nineteenth-century English literature: “An essay of Trollope’s.” The last, a professor of modern English: “An anthology of pros.”
Sound like they were a Misanthrope of Dons.
@@southcoastpauly now, not then.
Oh, very good 😄
My son is fascinated by these words and likes to invent his own. We live in an area with lots of seniors, who seem to just randomly bunch up in groups, impeding the movement of everyone else. So he calls them a "clot of seniors". After recently being around some teenage girls, he's calling them a "giggle of girls", which I think is has a nice similarity to gaggle of women.
A giggle of girls is cute and clever.
Your son needs a better hobby.
too funny
That's very cute, actually 😅
Since boys tend to be a bit nervous around girls, one might call a group a bumbling of boys.
My French wife recently took to describing her collection of poultry in the garden as: 'My fleet of chickens.' I pointed out to her that 'fleet' is used to describe a group of ships, or possibly aircraft. She thought about it for a while and then said: 'I rather like the idea of them being a fleet. And they do fly - a bit.'
In my native Finland I have heard a story of crows, or more specifically "crow trials". Lots and lots of crows show up usually in a single tree. They stay there for a long time and make lots of noise. Then they leave, sometimes leaving a dead crow behind.
Flamboyance of flamingoes and a kaleidoscope of butterflies have always been my favourite.
I like an embarrassment of pandas
How about a graffiti of zebras?
Those are beautiful!
Oh my! I had never heard "kaleidoscope of butterflies"! How delightful!
@@DalokiMauvais It is, rather, isn't it. :D
My favorite group is that of ravens, which can also be called a “conspiracy”, so one time when my mom learned this, she told us, than made a meme, it was a picture of a lot of ravens, with the caption: “IT’S A CONSPIRACY”, very few people got it.
I now also love “an oversubscription of UA-camrs”
W mom
One of my Facebook posts during the pandemic was the obscure "Corvid - Conspiracy or Murder". Few people got the joke.
They can also be known as an Unkindness
Both are correct :)
I saw a comic strip that called a group of lawyers a "conspiracy." :>)
@@brucestiles6477 I thought that was a bunch of sharks? Or was I thinking about bankers? But what I do know is a Congress of Salamanders is very funny.
One that I heard and had a giggle about was 'an attitude of teenagers'.
I really like those ones about wolves and dogs. A mute of hounds evokes the image of them silently stalking their prey from the shadows. Same with a skulk of foxes.
Similar story with A route of wolves. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but to me it makes them sound steadfast and confident in their ability. Never straying from the path. An unwavering force of nature.
I took the opposite view and thought perhaps the author was having a laugh by coining "mute of hounds" because if you've ever heard a group of hounds they are the exact opposite of mute!
The "on porpoise" was perfect 👌
That reminded me of Norm MacDonald's appearance on Conan O'Brien's show, when he hilariously told the awful joke about "serving a youthful porpoise."
I like those little jokes and puns he sneaks in. But sometimes I wonder if I missed any. I'll try not to overthink it.
Yep, that one almost flew under the radar, he kept a perfectly straight face. Any bloopers?
A nod to Lewis Carroll’s Gryphon and Mock Turtle
When smokers were starting to become persona non grata and small groups were seen outside buildings I asked colleagues to come up with a new collective noun for the phenomenon. My favourites were "A cloud of smokers" and "A coughin' (coffin) of smokers".
That's lovely 😂
The "coughin of smokers" is phenomenal! :D
Askegels (ash cones) is the name I use in Dutch. That’s what we call a smoked/burned part of a cigarette or cigar. And ‘kegel’ can mean cone but can also mean a bowling pin. And they’re often smoking at the entrance of a building at the end of an entranceway like a bowling alley.
Coffin is the best, most interesting one.
Depends on what they're smoking, though. If it's marijuana, I'd say it's more "a haze of the dazed".
Love these. Our car share pool did try and come up with collective nouns, especially modern suggestions. An amalgamation of gravel lorries (or dentists though an amalgam is better) was one. We had a giggle of guides and a heap of cubs, a detention of teachers, a toccata of organists, a zoom of motorcyclists, a Nah, nah of traffic police (in pursuit with blues and twos), an annoyance of spam callers etc etc. great fun especially if the collective nouns were appropriate or even inappropriate!
If I were to suggest a couple collective nouns...
Maybe a _Mumble_ of Linguists?
A _Thunder_ of dinosaurs?
How about a _Scribble_ of cartographers?
Always love your content, keep up the amazing work 😁
None of those can surpass "A Confusion of Philosophers". That's my favorite one.
I first encountered a "parliament of owls" in one of the Narnia books. It's also the title of the chapter, and features a literal wise council of owls that advise the protagonists.
A parliament that gives wise advice AND keeps the rodent population in check? When C.S. Lewis dreamed, he dreamed big!
A fun side fact: I just recently learned it was also a nod to Chaucer's A Parliament of Foules. LOL. I'm 52 and have read and been in love with Lewis and Narnia since childhood. I still read them on occasion and it's funny how certain things in everyday life trigger memory of chapter titles or quotes from one of the books. It's so cool to see you mentioned that chapter because it's one of my very favorites in the series. 🤓🥰
The owl is a prominent feature in the ruling-classes' symbolism. Bohemian Grove has a 30-foot statue of an owl in its grounds.
Could be the origin of The Court of Owls, from Batman comics 🤔
@@klaus_poppe IIRC, that was revealed to be one subset of the Larger [Parliament of Owls] that is basically DC's Illuminati.
In 1974, I was working as a secretary in a high school library. The first Christmas I worked there, the head librarian gifted me a slim book called "An Exaltation of Larks." It was, of course, a book of collective nouns, and utterly fascinating. I have it to this day.
A notable book by James Lipton (known for Actors' Studio) that should have been mentioned in this video even if it wasn't used as source.
A sassafras of vermillion
Clowder and glaring are both actually proper for a group of cats. I ❤ kitties.
There was an event I once attended where it was announced that we had a "Hastings" of people there (1,066). I thought that was hilarious, if rather specific. I love English, it's so magnificently weird in so many ways.
That would surely be a misspelling of or possibly pun on hustings
a meeting at which candidates in an election address potential voters.
Originally referring to a governing assembly in Germanic.
@@franohmsford7548 that's cool I did not know that! I think it had more to do with the Battle of Hastings though, which took place in 1066.
@@Branwhin As I said....It may have been a double pun with the number of people there making the change from Hustings to Hastings an easy and obvious malaprop.
In the US navy, our Eagle rank insignia for Petty Officers are often called crows (couldn’t tell you why) and when someone is going through a qualification where a bunch of Petty Officers are drilling you, it is called a “Murder board” because you’re surrounded by crows.
Lol, that's interesting, didn't know that.
Funnily enough in the British Army, officers are often referred to as crows as a bit of a pejorative.
When in training we'd give the officer in charge the big, heavy LSW rifle; affectionately called the "crow cannon."
On an episode of the television series Inspector Morse, Morse ponders what a group of pathologists would be called, and he concludes it must surely be a _body_ of pathologists.
Perfect
It is.
enjoy the Inspector Morse radioplays
Love Morse! English/grammar lessons and a murder all in one! John Thaw was the best!
why wouldn't that be a cut?
A complaint of Karens.
Awesome
Nice.
Spot on 😂😂😂
😂😂😂
I love the accuracy of an embarrassment of pandas and I love the word niblings because saying "nieces and nephews" is such a mouthful. I can't wait to see my niblings this weekend lol such an adorable word
Penguins actually have two collective nouns depending on whether they are on land (a waddle) or swimming (a raft).
You could also have a Miracle of Penguins for when they are in flight. 🤪
@@PLuMUK54 Lol, well done 👏
I've heard waddle before but also a panache of penguins.
@@PLuMUK54penguins fly? Only under water as far as I know.
@@lorraineliggera4229 That's why you would call it a "miracle" ;-)
Some years ago the author of a novel I was reading referred to a group of teen-agers as a “giggle of girls.” Having a teen-age daughter at that time, I found this to be absolutely on point!🌸
A book of collective nouns I read a few years back had "a blush of boys."
Amen!
My Cornish grandfather referred to his four daughters as "a giggle of girls" in the 1940's.
Apparently this is very old, 16th century if not 15th, but was originally "a giggle of boys". Culture changes I guess.
It's actually a bevy of girls
I've heard a couple of supposed origins for this one. The version of the story I like is:
The then PM, Thatcher, organised a get-together of former Prime Ministers. Callaghan, Heath, MacMillan, Wilson and Home were chatting and one musingly asked "What do you think the collective noun for a gathering of Prime Ministers would be?" MacMillan suggested that it would be 'A Lack'. Explaining he said, "A lack of principals." I hope it's true, it's certainly a pretty good description.
I love "a clowder of cats" which I recently came across in a recent book about shape-shifters. (I looked it up, and it only dates from about 1801, and probably comes "cludder" (clutter) related to "clot.")
I always thought that it being a murder of crows was somehow tied to them being perceived as an ill omen.
Yeah that was my interpretation aswell.
Maybe they weren't at the time and we just see it like that now but I always thought that was what it was referring to.
So did I
I think that's still the same explanation; crows were perceived as a sign of ill omen because they hang out around dead bodies and make (what are to us) ominous shrieking sounds
I wonder if the word was resurrected by the movie “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock. I have a vague memory of learning the word in association with that movie, but can’t remember if it was ever used in the movie.
@@margaretford1011 Possibly popularized it. That's a Hitchcock I sadly haven't seen yet, I should get on that!
We used to come up collective nouns for things that didn’t have them as a car trip game. Some of my favourite are ‘a nightmare of teenagers’ and an ‘angst of goths’.
Penny Arcade came up with a blessing of unicorns, I think.
@@jjkrayenhagen I don't think PA came up with it, or at least I haven't found anything citing them as the source.
On a side note: Google tells me a group of unicorns can also be called a glory or a marvel.
@@RelativelyBest I thought that one of their articles said that they came up with it in one of their discussions, but maybe they just mentioned hearing it.
I would argue that it should be 'An Angst of Emo' and 'A Skulk of Goths' :P
Ed Byrne says it a Mood Of Goths and an Isobar of Emos, they being linked by their depression
I love the counters for vultures !! A kettle while flying , a committee while in the ground and a wake while eating I think 😂 generically one can use a flock
I do love a 'Flamboyance of Flamingos'. No clue where it comes from, but honestly? I don't care, I just love it!
Also, having grown up in Africa, I think that one would be hard-pressed to find two leopards together, let alone a whole "leap of leopards". This may be another reason that they fell out of use. There is not much use of a collective noun for something that doesn't exist in a collective
An imagination of hermits.
I’d say that lands perfectly between phonetics, exoticism & exaggerated warning
I wonder if it was coined for multiple leopards in a heraldic achievement?
@@jgw5491 A heraldic achievement would be the entirety of all the components a bearer of a coat of arms is entitled to (supporters, motto, helmet, mantling etc). I'm not aware of leopards being displayed anywhere outside of a heraldic charge. To the best of my knowledge, three is the maximum of leopards displayed in any coat of arms (and they usually look more or less the same like a heraldic lion because, frankly, medieval Europeans had no clue what they looked like) and heraldry tries to be precise when describing any given coat of arms. For instance, the famous English three lions where, in heraldry, originally called leopards (which was more of a description for a pose). So, the royal British arms would be Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure -> On a red field, three golden lions walking in the "Dexter" position looking towards the viewers with a blue tongue.
TLDR: Heraldry does not use collective nouns for a charge, it would say "2 leopards" or "3 fish" or "5 geese"
and blue claws. That's the "armed". @@timolynch149
The effortless use of porpoise in your monologue without even skipping a beat or smiling was 😚👌🏻 perfect. 😆 Thank you for the pun.
And thanks for all the fish!
Came here to say this 👏🏼
I dolphinately enjoyed that pun too.
Yes his was perfect. I tried to slip it in once in a conversation and received a lot of side-eyed views.
Literally going through the comments to see if anyone else noticed 👏🏽
I've always thought of the 'business of ferrets' as a 'busy-ness of ferrets' due to them being incredibly active creatures.
My favorites (real and otherwise) are:
Flamboyance of Flamingoes (because who would argue with a Flamboyance)
Mob of Emu (I can just see them extort the local McDonalds)
Convocation of Eagles (because they're undeniably majestic)
Mess of Iguanas (it's a mess everywhere they go)
Intrusion of Cockroaches (no argument here)
Obstinancy of Buffalo (I'm not stubborn, YOU are!)
Implausibility of Gnus (this makes the death of Mufasa all the more tragic)
Blessing of Narwhals (we all know how superstitious sailors can be)
Claw of Panthers (come closer and find out)
Conspiracy of Lemurs (they like to move it move it)
Mischief of Rats (conspirators extraordinaire)
I can wholeheartedly recommend making a quiz of these. I had so much fun coming up with alternatives that are as ridiculous are the originals.
Some ideas:
Fluffy: An apology of Brits.
Satirical: A grift of politicians.
Morbid: A stabbing of youths.
A courtesy of Canadians?
The 90's band, "Counting Crows" has a great song called "Murder of one" that is about being isolated and alone, and I've always loved the obscurity of the reference.
That title is much more clever than the band’s music, which I had completely forgotten about.
As a fish nerd...(great video as usual! Thank you)
i just wanted to mention that schooling and shoaling are distinctively different. A school is tightly grouped fish moving as one, undualting and pulsing. A shoal is when fish split up and stay near but each scatter in their own patterns and far more loosely.
Just two different survival tactics that evolved for social fish.
I thought a "shoal" was also an area of shallower water near the coast that ships could still travel through. As in the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 "we are shallow on the draft, can't see lose them along the shoal?" Or is the word incorrect? I'm not a nautical person but my first thought upon hearing the word shoal was water depth not fish.
@naomilangevin3944 that is another use of the word also. Good call
@@naomilangevin3944I'm from savannah GA with some time spent in the florida keys and breifly in the gulf of mexico and that's the only way I've ever heard it used.
There could be several schools of fish or fishes( the double plural for multiple kinds of fish that is rarely used outside of biblical quotations or marine biologists but could be used at any fish market) but they were described as swimming or otherwise residing in the shoals or in "that shoal over there" as someone pointed to a distinct area that followed a line. I was never instructed as to what designated the ending of one shoal and the beginning of another but it always seemed intuitive with darkening waters and bigger individual fish species frequenting those areas and far fewer smaller or more numerous species. Like the space between galaxies or a dark region where few galaxies exist or within a galaxy where few star systems exist but which isn't obscured by a dust cloud.
"The shoals" was an area you could explore and was populated by schools and individual marine species.
It was never defined to me, but often used. I suppose it could've been in reference to the loose groupings of fish who occupied those regions, but I remember being warned about getting a water craft stuck in those regions on several occasions or damaging a keel.
A fin keel, was also just called a keel. With fiberglass and inflated or semi ridged hulls which never possessed a real keel from stem to stern as well as the metal bottom and even modern wooden vessels with a shallow keel simply referred to as the hull or bottom of the hull. The only time that the word "keel" was imidiatly followed by the word "fin" was on the caudal peduncle of a fish at the 4H marine center, which the children would imidiatly laugh at when pronounced.
In Japanese, the suffix "tachi/dachi (達)" is usually just tagged onto the end of nouns to pluralize them, since Japanese doesn't really have plurals like English does. For example, 人達 means "people"
I think it was quite natural for some of the weird collective nouns to be resurrected in the 20th century. 400 years ago, such words were something of a slang, not much more than a joke, so they were mostly forgotten when they went out of fashion.
On the other hand, in the 20th century, a lot of people didn't perceive such words as "slang" when reading old literature (it was the 20th century when most people finally got access to affordable books), but rather as very "classy" and "educated" ways that only "smart" and "authoritative" people use (that is, people who don't have much going on in their lives and who use their knowledge of obscure words from old books to assert their "superiority").
I can already imagine some schoolteacher from the 20th century saying "No, Billy! It's not a group of crows! It's a murder of crows! Remember to always use proper English, Billy!"
I think one of your first lines in this video should be adopted. 'A peculiarity of English' is a very good collective noun for us 😂
"British English" I would assume.
It works for the people or the language, if you'd like to refer to a grouping of words.
I like the fact that when geese are on the ground they are a ‘gaggle’ but when flying in formation they are a ‘skein’.
Yes, and when speaking of a skein of geese, it’s fun to advise that geese assemble into these formations to benefit from the aerodynamic efficiency it provides, and then ask why one side of the skein is longer than the other and pause while the scientific possibilities are considered...the answer? There’s more geese on that side...
@@Dbsabzbzb One of my favorite jokes - and you beat me to it! lol! 🤣
I wonder how it is connected with a skein of wool, wool wound in a loop before it is wound into a ball.
A group of geese floating on water is called a plump.
It's because geese skein up to get high. :D
In Dutch there's still a word "samenscholing" for a group getting together in public (often used in the context of demonstrations, riots, law enforcement, etc). A "samenscholingsverbod" is thus a prohibition to form groups at that particular location.
There was a very funny sketch on the show “Not the 9o’clock news” where they invented “A Flange of Baboons” and apparently this has been taken up to some extent by those studying them.
I love that you asked a bird-related society about those words, and they answered you seriously. Your channel truly contains a "wonder of videos"!
I love "a fluffle of bunnies", even if I don't know if it has any linguistic history or if that was just made up recently. It's certainly catching on with bunny owners!
FLUFF ❤
I remember a member of the audience at an orchestral concert saying that a particularly quiet tremolo passage by the violas sounded like "a herd of bees".
I have a longtime favorite, mentioned in this video: an unkindness of ravens. I met the phrase decades ago as the title of a crime novel by an English author!
I can only recall making up one group noun: a giggle of queens for a group of gay men. This is from long ago when I was much younger, and more prone to giggling with my friends. I would strive to use it only in describing men who like, or don't mind, being called queens. :-)
In high school we read a short story about collective nouns called”…And a Grasp of Millionaires”.
My favourite (whether it is old or modern) is a mischief of rats. As a pet rat owner it amuses me because it is so accurate. If my pet rats start grouping together, they are usually up to something.
Hi! I live in the US. Here are some my 2nd grade daughter came home singing about: a pounce of cats, a band of gorillas, a tower of giraffes, a crash of rhinos, a knot of toads, an army of frogs, and a clutch of chicks. I don't think I had heard of any of these before.
This explains where "eleven leopards leaping came from." in "The 12 Days of Christmas" song.
Leopards? I never heard that before - or are you joking? There are various versions out there that switch around the last 3 or 4 groups, but the one I learned has "Eleven pipers piping" and "Ten lords a-leaping."
When I was growing up, we had about 30 or more barn cats on our farm. These were semi-feral cats that lived in our barns and kept the vermin population under control. My grandfather referred to them as a "TRIBE" of cats. He also pointed out that there were two distinct tribes; one tribe at each of our barns. Also, each tribe had a distinct TOM that ruled each tribe.
Growing up in England in the 50s, I remember one of my favourite classes was spending a whole week on collective nouns. Our teacher combined grammar with literature, history, and even art to teach us collective nouns. One that I remember from that time, and have never heard it used since is a commonwealth of bees.
Did you use the book "First Aid in English"? It was a splendid schoolbook, which our primary school relied on hugely for such delights as these collective words. I haven't seen a copy of it anywhere in decades.
Sounds like you had a fabulous teacher!
I think it may derive from one of the 18th century British philosophers who wrote an essay about the ideal state being like a beehive with all the bees selflessly devoted to their king, ultimately producing sweetness and light, i.e. honey and beeswax for candles. A commonwealth of bees. Of course, they didn't know that the king bee is actually female, and the other bees are sterile females who cluster around her to feed her and carry off her eggs. I actually read this royalist essay long ago, and was pleased to see the origin of the phrase sweetness and light, although it's usually used ironically now.
@@b.a.erlebacher1139 Very interesting, thanks for that insight!
The word commonwealth reminds me of a group of countries.
"It appears we've made the change on porpoise..." 😄😅🤣😂🐬 Well played sir. Well played.
My all-time favorites are the three collective nouns for a group of vultures. They are a *kettle* of vultures when wheeling overhead,. When roosting in threes they are called a *committee* of vultures, and when engaged in the business of feeding on a dead carcass, they are a *wake* of vultures.
I have actually wondered about this.
In Swedish the only ones i can think of are:
Flock - most animals.
Stimm - Fish.
And Svärm - Insects.
All CAN be used for people too but would be seen as rather pejorative .
We also use ”Stimma” as a verb for people making a commotion or Stimmig describing such people.
And about sound, we do have Surra ( a buzzing sound ) sometimes used for people and especially talkative groups or individuals.
Well!
Here are my contributions:
* A poop of polititians.
* A sob of singles.
* A snot of celebrities.
* A mayhem of musicians.
* A whatdahellyawant of whiskies.
* An otherness of opinions.
* A dingle of departments.
* A potty of political parties.
* A plummet of airplanes.
A plummet of airplanes, lol
Plummet of Airplanes? Too soon man, too soon.
9/11 Never Forget!
I ran into the "Stoakes-Whibley natural index of supernatural collective nouns" a while back, and it has some interesting entries like: a racket of banshees, a legion of demons, a pleasure of pixies, a majesty of titans, a yard-sale of androids, a percussion of giants, an industry of villains, a snarl of minotaurs, THE BORG, and my favourite a basement of vampires.
Okay, I have to give credit to the late, great Terry Pratchett for this one who gave us the Argument of Witches.
Shortage of Dwarves
Ive heard legion of demons quite often, and honestly, an industry of villains fit well.
A Rattle of Bones.
Where I’m from in America collective nouns are sometimes used by PA or radio announcers for amateur Football (American) games. For example they’ll say “The runner was brought down by a pride of panthers.” Or “There was a stampede of thoroughbreds on the tackle”. The announcer for my county’s team growing up always said a “host of wildcats”. I think it has become somewhat of a pastime over here to make up some of these or coin them.
Few people think of it, but 'a month of Sundays' is a term of venery (which is what names of collections are called). "I haven't seen you in a month of Sundays." would imply 30-ish Sundays-- 7-8 months--so, a long time.
I believe the term for ferrets is 'a busyness of ferrets' (not 'business'), which aptly describes them. And, yes; 'busyness' is a real word.
The Pedantry Corner is now closed.
Oddly, I've heard groups of vultures referred to in three ways.
Flying in a group they're called a "kettle," which as far as I know is a general term for birds flying in formation.
Landed and hanging out (on trees, power lines, etc) they're a "committee," and a "wake" when gathered around a corpse.
Kettle is generally used at least in the USA for a group of birds, generally vultures and/or other birds of prey soaring and circling in a thermal.
For what it is worth, we were given a (printed) list of collective animals at school in the late 70s. A ‘crash of rhinos’ was listed there and it was one of the ones that has stuck with me through the years.
I’ve definitely heard/read that many times over the years, myself.
As a fan of Time Team, in one episode Tony Robinson asked what the collective noun for archeologists should be and it was determined that it should be an Argument of Archeologists.
I find it interesting that we usually say '[collective noun] of [noun]'. Like if someone said 'there's a murder over there', that would mean something different from 'there's a murder of crows over there'
A Thunder of Dragons Is a term I have heard before. Very evocative. I would imagine, numerous massive wings beating simultaneously might sound like a thunderstorm.
In the days of IRC, the usenet newsgroup alt.fan.dragons spread there as AFD, and coined "a Dominance of Dragons" (with caps, because dragons are prideful ;)
Stephen King calls it a Bonfire of Dragons.
At my Gaming Table (D&D or GURPS usually) it would deteriorate to a "Hilarity of Dragons" at this point... AND it's probably my fault...
In a "one-shot-turned-campaign", sometime back, I was reaching a low-energy point and someone complained that we hadn't (as a group) faced any dragons... Now, granted, we had several relative noob's in the group and some veterans of our collective had "retired" (basically moved and life got in the way)... so it was a sort of new group, but it had also been quite a while since we had faced dragons, even for the remaining veterans of the game at the Table... SO I started working in an adventure direction toward that...
At some point, memories of my mother crept in, and particularly a conversation (she was a fantasy novel FIEND) where we discussed the actual ramifications of "what if dragons WERE real"... AND hit upon the prospect of just leaving the car wash... and you think bird-sh*t is disheartening!
SO in a town carved right out of the rocks of mountainsides and cliffs, I narrated and described a few free-standing buildings, all of which seemed at least 3 to 5 TIMES as durable as any the Party had seen... There were signs of course, "beware dragons" and the like... Everything outdoors was WAY over-engineered for what you'd expect... AND the livery in town even had a system for self service in the case the shop keep or night watch wasn't immediately present, so customers could let themselves in and park wagons without requisite aid, a place to write and sign notes, and the like... BUT of course, they parked the wagon and horses right outside the bar, and even ignored the warnings from a couple street kids and a woman who could easily tell they "weren't from anywhere around here"...
AND of course, a few minutes in the tavern later, there was a horrendous crash outside, the screaming of horses and a commotion... and the Party came out to see the immense pile of dung slumping in the middle of the remains of their wagon, with the horses bolting down the street... because I couldn't get the idea out of my head... and it was too funny to resist...
SO ever since that little adventure (which they played out and even survived relatively the worse for the wear, but not hopelessly so) the merest mention of dragons at our Table results in a roll of giggles and mutters building up to hilarity as the story is retold to whomever "was noob' enough to look for that kind of trouble" at least at our Table... ;o)
I think that came from the Inheritance Cycle
I've read "an inferno of dragons" though they were at that moment in the story attacking a town with fire.
"A blaze of dragons" would also be a good short hand, perhaps used by members of a more rural community in a fantasy setting.
Please bear with me on this one. Once a year I make a 9-gallon batch of Spaghetti sauce that I freeze in 2-person portions for an easy meal once a week or so. After I have all the ingredients combined in 2 large pots I distribute it into 8 crock pots I have collected over the years, for a low slow overnight cook to get that "Grandma spent all day in the kitchen" flavor. So, what do I call this gathering of pots in my kitchen?
A simmer of crock pots!
Love it!
@@wordreet It's not often that I come up with an acknowledged witticism, so I am going to take some time and savor it! Thank You!
@@samTollefson Please be careful though. Leaving stuff cooking overnight is not without risks. Hopefully you have a smoke alarm in the ceiling nearby. Our local Fire Service people installed three in various places in the house just a few months ago. I had one for ages, but with no battery in it!
@@wordreet No worries, I run the pots at about 210 degrees until I go to sleep then turn them off with the covers on until the morning when I bring them back up to 180 or so before shutting them down, cooling and bagging them for freezing. I have been doing this for 30+ years with no problems, and have enjoyed a few thousand delicious low-effort weekday meals! Thanks for your concern!
@@samTollefson Cool bananas! No, wait! Hot bananas! No! Wait! . . . 😕
I always enjoyed "a congress of baboons." I'm not sure it's historical, but I have to applaud whichever wag put it into circulation.
Regarding "a crash of rhinoceroi," I've heard that this term dates back to Juliana Berners' book - but, as you've cited it as one of your sources for the video, I now have doubts.
Finally, "a walk of snails" was a new one for me, and I like it! I think I'm going to have to resurrect this one.
Edit: Watching this again, almost a year later, I just caught "a Laughtre of Oſteloris" - which I *think* would be "hostlers" in today's English. In my own experience, people who care for horses are often characterized by raucous good humour; I guess some things never change.
Hostler or ostler. I'd only previously encountered the second spelling, but apparently the two are about as common as each other.
@@petertaylor4980 Interesting! I've only encountered "ostler" in literature. According to a quick Google search, it seems that "ostler" is the common British spelling and "hostler" the American. This is odd because I'm Canadian, and we usually favour the British spelling of things (or, occasionally, the French spelling, for the sake of saving money on road signs).
German has some collective nouns, but not nearly as many. Aside from some occupations with some specialised terms, like fishermen or hunters, there are just a handful of words depending on what kind of group it is. For example, a group of predatory animals formed to assist each other in hunting is a Rudel, no matter if it is wolves, dogs, or lions. A Herde is a group of usually herbivorous animals formed to protect each other when eating or travelling, and usually has some kind of leader. Schwarm is often used for birds, fish, or insects, but really all massive gatherings (especially if they seem kinda chaotic and unorganised to us humans) can be called that. For smaller and more organised groups or migration of birds sometimes Rudel (or even military terms like Formation, Staffel, or Zug) gets used to empathise how orderly they fly compared to the chaos of a swarm.
My favorite involves vultures. When there are a group of vultures eating together it is a wake of vultures. I cannot think of a better word.
As a German speaking person, I am very familiar with such collective words. But in German they are used in daily language. From the comments now I understood, that people do not really know them?
By the way: A school of dolphins or dolphinschool (Delfinschule) is a known expression. But we have also fun words like: a hunger of bears (Bärenhunger) a thirst of apes (Affendurst).
For clarity, collective words in English are not those wonderful collections of words all stuck together that make German such a joy. Bärenhunger is NOT a multiplicity of bears and Affendurst is not a multiplicity of apes and as far as I know the Delfinschule is where you learn to swim. Rather a fun posting nonetheless!
Dolphin school or whale school are used in German. But more likely for a group of moms and kids
...or whales as well.
In Donald Duck, years ago, I saw Affenhitze.
Are you not confusing collective nouns (a gaggle of geese/Gänseschar) with compund nouns (Windmill/Windmühle)? As far as I am awarre there are only few collective nouns in German as the same word e.g. Schar is used for a large number fo different animals.
as a beekeeper, who likes to ride bikes........ i can safely say, its not a "bike of bees"
if they are in their established hive, its a "colony"....... if they are moving out, and in between hives, its a "swarm"..... if they abandon their home, its an "absconce" ...... if they all die inside their hive, its a "deadout".......... if the colony is new and small, its a "nuc" (short for nucleus) ................ if its a random queen, with random bees, in a temporary box, its a "Package"............................ and if youre me, they are "friends"
Collectives even spill over to things and ideas. A conglomeration of pots and pans or a battery of tests and a hail of bullets coming at you as examples.
I love making them up and one I'm particularly proud of is a cube of sugar daddys 😅
My favorite is “a slap of jellyfish.” There’s just something visceral about it. It’s great.
I’ve always been delighted at one of the collective nouns for otters as being a “romp”. Very suitable, particularly for river otters.
Thank you so much for this video; I’ve got a new hobby! How about
- apparition of Saints
- transferrence of psychoanalysts
- levity of idiots
- jauntyness of teenagers
- sleepiness of anaesthetists
- obnoxiousness of clients
- binarity of computer scientists?
A Murmuration of Starlings has always been my favourite. It's just so onomatopoeic !
Psst...
Onomatopoeia, pronounced ah-nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh, refers to the practice of naming something based on a phonetic (spoken) imitation of a sound associated with it. It can also refer to a single word of this kind: Hiss is an onomatopoeia. Buzz, chirp, and honk are all also examples of onomatopoeia.
I had some trouble learning English, like many French. Unlike many French, I had both of my parents being quite confident with it. That didn't really help me, but still, I knew they knew much more than other kids' parents, in that field.
I was done with school life and starting to learn more and more English at my work, eventually getting comfortable with it. I came across the expression "murder of crows", and found it funny.
I went to my mother, the best of my two parents at English. Understand she's quite fluent in it, although to be fair, she's quite fluent in several languages. It's actually NOT helping to know many languages when you need to know tiny details about a second one.
She laughed so hard at me when I explained her that expression.
"Stop that non-sense, stupid. Never heard of such a thing. You're supposed to be an adult now, stop making things up".
So... yeah... my mother can be quite the "hard lover" kind. It did hurt. Mainly because it hurts growing up, realizing your super parents can be wrong. But also because you know, pride.
Years later after this story, thanks for the video.
I will forward it to my mother. Let's say, just because it's interesting and I just want to share interesting things :p
I doubt she'll remember the story. But the kid inside me will be very pleased.
Because you know. Pride ;-)
So you're a lion? :-P
Well, reading your comment here could give her a hint.
Lol... "Hard lover" is an interesting twist on "tough love". English is crazy.
Les mots collectifs ne sont pas très utiles, mais je pense qu'ils sont fascinants! _"Murder"!?_ o_O Pourquoi!? C'est complètement fou!
@@Tmanaz480 I was going to make the same comment :)
I feel second-hand vindication for you :) I hope she does remember when you tell her ❤
At the beginning of your first sentence, I think you inadvertently came up with a new one.
"A peculiarity of English". A collection of just about any random grouping of any and all possible English words and phrases, and the explanations of where they all came from. 😂
Or when you get a bunch of Brits together down at the pub: “A Peculiarity of English”
Drinking pints of ‘Old Peculiar’.
Get your camera, Marge! It's a peculiarity of English!
@@skagi4182Is that the same Marge that Ray Stevens sings about? 😅
"It's Me Again Margaret" Ray Stevens (comedy song)
ua-cam.com/video/4Wb2nZR6qbE/v-deo.html
@@johnnymcauliffe1289 Peculiarities are what I find charming about the British. Cars, comedy...cars that are comedy, lol. Like that one with three wheels that you can pretty much carry around as luggage, lol.
Quirky little streets and lanes. And the ancient history behind it all. It's so different from America, but it's different in an interesting and good way.
I love my country, but too much of America looks like Walmart or McDonald's, and that's not an American look that I, or many American people, actually like.
Which is why we go on vacation...usually inside America admittedly, but looking for a kind of "lost America" that doesn't look like a big billboard sign advertising its modern over-commercialized self.
I've always been quirky myself, so maybe that's part of why I like the Britishness of Great Britain.
To Americans, I think most of us look at, or LIKE to look at Britain like it is some combination of Downton Abbey, James Bond, Harry Potter, King Arthur's court, and every movie or TV show we've ever seen with a butler or someone else prim and proper, in it who keeps everything "ship shape and running in Bristol fashion".
The UK has an attractive image in the US, of being the best combination of quirky and proper, at the same time.
There's an old saying that I like, which probably also applies to it. "Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light."
And in almost every book I read as a youngster, my favorite characters were usually the ones who were the most cracked, in the best ways, whether American or British or whomever.
6:30 Germans also have the Word "Welpe" for a joung Dog, like in the Book.
We also use the Word "Schule" (School) for Groups of Fish or Whales and other often female leaded Mammals, like Elephants.
I also heared the Word "Pflock" for Sheep. In German, Pflock is a pointed wooden Stake, used in building Fences or killing Vampires.
I'd like to submit a modern-day collective noun, "a Gossip of Secretaries". I think that is very apt! (And any shrewd boss would want his secretary to know the latest gossip going around).
Hi, Have you considered making a video about the different sounds animals make in different languages? In one of my jobs I had co-workers of several different nationalities and somebody went around using people to tell him what kind of sound the different animals make in their native language. It was surprising how different the sounds were. In English the ducks quack but us Hungarians claim that the sound they make is "hap".
Great idea!
Yesss
I agree!
Romanians say that the ducks go 'mac, mac' which curiously is also their word for poppy.
This is a great idea!
I love that you mentioned that the collective noun for a group of whales was changed to "pod on porpoise" and just moved right along. Very droll. Also 'flocc' is what we call the bound together suspended solids in a liquid - as used in water treatment, where a floccing agent is added to make the solids combine and sink or float so they can be removed.
it is a flocculating agent; well known to chemists
Dave Taylor, yes, I heard that and my brain went BOING…! Too early in the morning for puns🤪
I caught that, too. I had to back it up and listen again with CC on. Rob is a punny guy.
This was fun! One if my favorites is actually a pair collective nouns for giraffes, of which my (Maasai) guide told us during a Kenyan safari. When you see several giraffes standings together, they're referred to as a "tower" of giraffes; but when you see several of them walking together, they're called a "journey" of giraffes.
Crash of Rinos was on a poster in my elementary school library (early 1970s) as well as a murder of crows, pride of lions, and parliament of owls.
I've actually heard "a business of ferrets" on multiple occasions, so that one is definitely in use.
Likewise for me with "a crash of rhinos"
Whether etymologically sound or created out of thin air, repetition begets commonality begets thus being "real" words. Just ask "normalcy" - appropriated from math(s) by US prez Warren G. Harding as a neologistic synonym for "normality" - or the personally devastating "should of."
Multiple occasions? So you’re saying it’s “business” as usual?
Must be a ferret owner thing - had a friend who owned 2 - said if he had one more he would have a business of ferrets (first time I heard the term) .... we joked for a while on how the two ferrets were already into all his 'business' ...
A mullet is the collective term for a group of weasel fighters
Many years ago I received a book - "An Exaltation of Larks", a book entirely devoted to collective nouns. Get a copy if you can find one, it's fascinating!
Which emphasizes that it's a game! And has stunning illustrations... Pride of place on my shelf!
It s fascinating!
By James Lipton.
This video is required watching for anyone going on Jeopardy. Collective nouns is a weirdly common Jeopardy category.
R.I.P. Alex Trebek
A friend of mine who (at the time) read 11 languages fluently and could lecture in 7 of them, told me that the practice of having specific names for groups of each animal is common in many languages. -toby
I recommend the late James Lipton's book in collective nouns, "An Exaltation of Larks." It's lovely, and has both traditional and cleverly suggested names that add poetry to our language. Any interest in common nouns in the latter part of the 1900s probably stems from Lipton's delightful book.
I think that's the book I used to have -- my favorite collective noun has always been "an exaltation of larks." 😊
Although I'm unsure of their origin, while in Africa a tour guide indicated that giraffe have two collective nouns. While standing still, they are called a Tower of Giraffe, and while walking as a group they are called a Journey of Giraffe. Whether centuries old or of more recent origin, I think they're beautiful
One of my favorites is a mischief of rats! I loved calling my pet rats that when I had them! They were certainly mischievous when they all worked together!
I am so often so happy with the YT algorithm that sends me to so many random (for me) channels. This is one of those times.
Less than a minute into the video I already sensed I would really enjoy and appreciate this one. At the end of the video, my first impression was confirmed.
Thank you for an enjoyable, entertaining, and informative talk. I have subscribed! :D