Wednesday 12 June 2013

Collective Nouns



[UPDATE: Apparently it's only a murder of crows if they have probable caws.]

I was walking down the street the other day with a friend, when we saw three window cleaners, each with a ladder over one shoulder and a bucket in their hand, walking in perfect formation.

"What's the collective noun for window cleaners?" my friend asked.

"A shammy?"

Some other wonderful collective nouns - all true:

  • Ambush of Tigers
  • Charm of Finches
  • Congregation of Alligators
  • Crash of Rhinoceroses
  • Glaring of Cats
  • Smack of Jellyfish
  • Tower of Giraffes

You can find more collective animal nouns on Wiki.

Meanwhile, these lists of Fave Collective Nouns and Collective Nouns also offer some insight:

  • Amble of Walkers
  • Array of Luminaries
  • Bestiary of Mythological Creatures
  • Exaggeration of Fishermen
  • Field of Theoretical Physicists
  • Formation of Geologists
  • Gaggle of Gays
  • Gatling of Woodpeckers
  • Number of Mathematicians
  • Ponder of Philosophers
  • Shower of Applied Meteorologists
  • Sprig of Vegetarians
  • Stack of Librarians
  • Unease of Compromises

Just for equality purposes, I would also like to add: A Straight of Heterosexuals.

And, really, there ought to be a Blush of Brides.

Don't even mention Collective Nouns for Lawyers.

1 comment:

  1. "Venery"! A fellow dog-walker claimed "a snooze of greyhounds" although I've also come across "a leash of greyhounds". A recent coinage is "a dork of corgis". How about "a scrabble of venery coinages"?

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