Collective Nouns

Sometimes when we have nothing better to do at work, my friend Grace and I try to think of collective nouns. Sometimes we find real but obscure ones, like

a murder of crows
a parliament of owls

and sometimes we make up silly ones like

a disobedience of schoolchildren
a sulk (or an angst) of teenagers
a shush of librarians
a hop of bunnies.

So I have two questions. Is English the only language that has so many specific collective nouns? Do you know (or can you make up) any good ones?

Could you? please? kindly explain what they mean?

No problem Void! They are words used to describe a group of something. Like a group of lions is a pride, a group of sheep is a flock, or cattle is a herd. In English we have really obscure ones for different animals - no-one really uses them, but I think they are interesting. What do you have in Russian?

an arm of flowers
a snake of a battle formation ???֐w
a bundle of wind/rain/light
nine cows' hair ?㋍??
five towns' fog ?ܗ???
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As for the English examples, I also find them interesting in that they exist but are not used often. Perhaps they are calques from another language, or a histirical trend that went out of fashion such as pithy quotes ?

Tsuyoiko said:

Sometimes when we have nothing better to do at work, my friend Grace and I try to think of collective nouns. Sometimes we find real but obscure ones, like

a murder of crows
a parliament of owls

and sometimes we make up silly ones like

a disobedience of schoolchildren
a sulk (or an angst) of teenagers
a shush of librarians
a hop of bunnies.

So I have two questions. Is English the only language that has so many specific collective nouns? Do you know (or can you make up) any good ones?

Click to expand...

I got this one from one of the "Inspector Morse" TV dramas some years ago ...

... how about .... a body of pathologists....?



?W????

Tsuyoiko said:

No problem Void! They are words used to describe a group of something. Like a group of lions is a pride, a group of sheep is a flock, or cattle is a herd. In English we have really obscure ones for different animals - no-one really uses them, but I think they are interesting. What do you have in Russian?

Click to expand...

:blush: i mean, i know what a collective noun is, i just don`t know what the phrases you brought mean. Are they to understand literally?

we do have differen collective nouns for groups of animals (flock, pack, pride and such)

Here's a good one; a host of guests.

Void said:

:blush: i mean, i know what a collective noun is, i just don`t know what the phrases you brought mean. Are they to understand literally?

we do have differen collective nouns for groups of animals (flock, pack, pride and such)

Click to expand...

Sorry Void. :sorry: Well, I don't suppose they mean anything literally. But I think the nouns that are used are supposed to fit somehow with the thing being counted. Like 'murder' works for crows because they are thought to be dark and sinister creatures. I found this wiki article that gives some background - I learnt a lot from it! And for the ones we made up, they show some character of the group - like teenagers are sulky.

I also like the well-known school of fish. It gives the impression of very hard working, young minds all after the ever evasive academic excellence. Fish are also known to be good for brain development in young kids - I think that has become a myth, more thought of as a trick to trick kids to eat fish that might not be to their tastes tamed to McD's and mozzarella cheese. But it would be more difficult to devour the thinking fish moving in neat formation so full of life and passion !

An eager school of fish, fresh, lively, and learning !

But look at that shiver of sharks gliding up behind them! *sinister sawing Jaws-like violin music*

That's okay, Tuyoiko, for we the brownies are always prepared !
Girl Scouts not afraid of Jaws

Correct collective noun: a pack of girl scouts

Fun collective noun: a knot of girl scouts?

Tsuyoiko said:

Correct collective noun: a pack of girl scouts

Fun collective noun: a knot of girl scouts?

Click to expand...

Okay, Tsuyoi ! You win !
I admit I had drifted away from topic. A pack ? (not wolves !) A knot ? (not pine !) How about a rope of girl scouts ? A braid of girl scouts ?

Braid is good. You can have "a braid of Tsuyoikos", 'cos more often than not that is how I have my hair! And according to the wiki article, you can sometimes use collective nouns for singular objects, even though it sounds paradoxical. How about "a lexicon of lexicos"?

Tsuyoiko, thanks for the link :wave:

No problem, it's a good link, ne?

Here's one for you - "a singularity of Voids" (or should that be Den4s? )

Maybe vacancy of Voids or vacuty of Voids

I've always been confused with a "pair" of pants!

Goddammit! ... when I put "them" on ... there's only ONE!

:homer:

John

Sensuikan San said:

I've always been confused with a "pair" of pants!

Goddammit! ... when I put "them" on ... there's only ONE!

:homer:

John

Click to expand...

Nice one! "half a knicker" no use to anyone...

lexico said:

I admit I had drifted away from topic. A pack ? (not wolves !) A knot ? (not pine !) How about a rope of girl scouts ? A braid of girl scouts ?

Click to expand...

.... and Lexico goes bondage......

A miasma of mosquitos?
A billycan of Sensuikan-san's?
la-la-la-la-la... this gets all rather campingish... :worried:

An aqualung of Sen-sans

A j-pop of Kinsaos :sorry: