Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A bazaar of guillemots


A scolding of seamstresses.
An intrusion of cockroaches.
(Would you believe a nucleus of physicists?)
I know it's not just me who enjoys the sound of collective nouns. I mean these are odd beasts, these (verifiable) words for groups of things. A fluther of jellyfish, a mob of wallaby, a conspiracy of ravens...
If you Google (or Bing) collective nouns, there are a bunch of sites with worthy lists, any one of which is guaranteed to improve your day. One simple list I found (connected to a short story site), has a fun addition of some words which should be collective nouns (e.g. the physicists above). Now all we have to do is work a thunder of hippopotami into casual conversation.
--RL

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