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In English, collective nouns for a group of (usually animals) are full of surprises and often sound quite creative. A wake of vultures, a rave of ravens, a rook
by strogonoff 5y ago
In English, collective nouns for a group of (usually animals) are full of surprises and often sound quite creative. A wake of vultures, a rave of ravens, a rookery of seals, and so on.
- mikelevins 5y agoThere's also a standard name for such nouns in aggregate; "terms of venery". "Venery" in this context means hunting game animals, a usage that dates back to the late Middle Ages. Terms of venery are the conventional nouns used to designate collections of game animals. They're colorful, as you already know. There are a bunch of them that we've inherited from the late Middle Ages. On the other hand, there are a bunch more of them with more recent origin, presumably because amusement with the inherited ones has motivated lovers of words to coin new ones. James Lipton wrote a book entitled An Exaltation of Larks collecting a lot of terms of venery, both ancient and modern. If you are amused by "a murder of crows" and "a parliament of owls" then you'd probably like the book.
- singingboyo 5y agoSome animals do have multiple options. I guess creativity gets a bit more free reign given the lack of standard terms? Personally, I've never heard 'rave of ravens'. I've always been partial to conspiracy of ravens as the grouping of choice. Other favorites include: * Parliament of owls * Convocation of eagles * Ostentation of peacocks
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]