Collective nouns
September 15, 2004
I'm jealous of my friend Becky Crow. Not just because she's a talented jewellery designer, but also because I love her name. She was telling us that one day, she was in church with her extended family when a member of the congregation pointed at them and said: "That's one fine murder of crows." That's how she learned that the collective noun for crows is murder. In the conversation that followed, someone mentioned that there are lots of odd collective names for all sorts of words in the English language. I investigated and it's true; check out this site, it's great. I particularly like "A neverthriving of jugglers" and "a hangout of nudists" (even if it's spurious!).
Posted by céline, in Words, on September 15, 2004And of course we English do tend to invent them time after time :-) Do French speakers have this habit?
For example, amongst singing and church music circles we have lots of suggested (spurious) collective nouns for the different voices and church officials etc : -sometimes using the same starting letter e.g. (and it's only e.g.)
a titter of trebles
an attitude of altos
a tremor of tenors
a bastion of basses
a looseness of canons
[that last one is a jewel!]
and I won't go into the organists....
....and so on invent your own!
The question is how many will stick and cease to be "spurious". Only time will tell.
Kind regards
David
Great fun indeed. We don't tend to play with collective nouns in French, but maybe I should start the trend!
Posted by céline on September 15, 2004 4:53 PMActually, they're pretty much all spurious in English, ever since the general public stopped hunting their dinner and eventually discovered the quaintness of hunters' terminology. There are a few genuine ones buried beneath an ever-growing pile of nonce words from earlier centuries and cute modern-day versions, but it's hardly worth the trouble of digging them out. Just enjoy them for the play value!
Posted by language hat on September 15, 2004 7:16 PMCeline,
Would a beerless coeliac count...?
Dan, it probably should then be "a beerless of coeliac sufferers". Quality.
Posted by céline on September 16, 2004 1:03 PMOK, what about the oldest profession bar one?
· A gist of translators
· A faithfulness of translators
Nice in the context of this website, but sadly unlikely to catch on, especially in the light of Céline's experience the other day:
· A nakedness of translators
I'll get me coat.
Neij
Posted by Neij on September 17, 2004 2:00 AMNeij: How about "a logorrhoea of translators"?
Posted by céline on September 17, 2004 7:49 AMPrevious: September 10, 2004
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