Have you ever pick up a chemical group of ferret called abusiness ? Or a collection ofjellyfishreferred to as asmack ? What about ashrewdnessof ape ? We use specific collective nouns , also known as nouns of gathering , to line all sorts of groups — hostsof angels , bandsof military personnel andshocksof maize are commonly heard these day — but the nouns associated with particular groupings of fauna can get weird , tight .
Because words and their uses are excogitate by the great unwashed , when we see a bunch of a specific structure , you could bet on it being the consequence of a linguistic communication cult . And , certain enough , 500 years ago , nouns of assemblage were all the fury . In this case , it start with animals :
" These are generally terms that came about from upper - class hunting finish in the fourteenth and 15th centuries , " Magdalene Jacobs , a Ph.D. candidate in the Vanderbilt UniversityDepartment of Hearing and Speech Sciences , says in an email . " They ’re called ' terms of venery , ' and they ’re linked to Norman culture and influence , and to the idea of ' right ' hunt lyric . "
Over 160 terms of venery are list in theBook of St. Albans , a wildly democratic ( at the time ) how - to Word of God published in 1486 , which coach medieval valet through having conversations about hunt , falconry , sportfishing , sports andheraldrywithout embarrassing themselves at dinner party party . These corporate nouns are found in a chapter gentle " The Compaynys of Beestys and Fowlys " and some of the full term refer to multitude rather than animals — a hilarious medieval joke .
People
The Book of St. Albans not only discover a collection of bears as asleuthand a group of Fox as askulk , but link women to geese in the collective consciousness by labeling collections of bothgaggles . allot to Jacobs , there is a direct linguistic link from gaggle to the center English word for " cackle " — they even count similar these mean solar day . cohere a bunch of married woman together and you ’re leave with animpatience(or " a Noonpatiens , " as the author wrote it ) . A group of writers , on the other paw , is aworship . Iflanguage tells us how to thinkabout the world , who do you cogitate 15th one C European gentlemen ( and the Jehovah of the Book of St. Albans ) had more respect for , women or writers ?
Because you ca n’t keep the kids from give up slang , once the construction was enter in the Book of St. Albans , masses started strike their own nouns of assemblage . Although a lot of these term sneak into obscurity in the sixteenth century like most of the patois we generate on a annual fundament , some of them were adopted into coarse speech . These Clarence Day we do n’t often have occasion to tattle about asneerof Butler or amisbeliefof portrait painters , but whoever came up with astaffof employees , acongregationof churchgoers , or apanelof judges should felicitate themselves for a line well done , linguistically speaking .
Birds
Much of the time , the " correct " terminus for a mathematical group of anything lets us know our corporate thought on the tendency of whatever we ’re naming . Some of the most evocative terms of venery can be found in birds . The Book of St. Albans lists an " unkyndenesof ravenes " and a " murtherof crowes . " " Unkindnesses " and " execution " are both glower upon in polite companionship , as ravens and crows sometimes are , but the condition " charmof finch " rent us bang the great unwashed generally ascertain these bird endearing , harmless and even magical - seeming . Whoever first referred to acollegeof cardinals was probably suggesting they thought the group of small red bird await like a meeting of academics , but why a group of stork is call amusteringis a little less clear .
C.S. Lewiscoined the termparliamentof owls in his children ’s Holy Writ series " The Chronicles of Narnia , " a nod to Chaucer ’s poem " A Parliament of Fowls . " The term is now recognized in lexicon as being the correct term for a radical of owls .
Insects
There are curiously few nouns of assemblage forinsectsmentioned in The Book of St. Albans . We still name to aswarmof bees , which was recorded in the book , but we do n’t talk as much about abusinessof flies or aflockof louse .
Domesticated Animals
We have a special relationship with the creature we live with , and the name we use for groups of our most conversant animals are sometimes strange , but that ’s because they ’re old . For instance , akindleof kittens come from the Middle English wordkindelen , which meant to give birth or produce alitter(which is now more normally used for all kinds of baby animals , but was originally used for puppies ) . Agroup of adult catsmight be aclowder(meaning " clotted mass " ) , aglaringor apounce , but a crowd of feral cats is adestruction(anyone concerned about thedecline of migrating songbirdscan infer why this might be . )
detent , which were as much a man ’s best friend in the Middle Ages as today , got a lot of manoeuvre in The Book of St. Albans . hunt heel alone get under one’s skin several grouping titles : acry , amute , apack , akennel .
Wild Animals
Some of the most inventive terms of venery are use to wild animals .
" Because they began as hunting terms , the original names from the Book of St. Albans reverberate a specific social disposition towards the brute being hunt — a ' prideof Leo ' is a good exercise , " say Jacobs . " Others that came subsequently , such as a " wisdomof wombats , " may be inaccurate as wombat are rather lone and do n’t expend time in group . Others likely come to to quality of the creature themselves : a business of ferrets came from’busynessof ferret ' . "
Which makes more sense than business if you ’ve spent any prison term at all watching ferrets .
These day we can talk about aprickleof hedgehogs , anobstinacyof buffalo , abloatof hippos and agamof hulk , regardless of whether we ’re plan on obliterate them or not . We just may not eff who came up with these terms and why .
