Have you ever wondered where collective animal names came from? If you have, you would have seen some of the wildly colourful names attributed to these groups. They seem to capture the nature of the creatures they name in a most entertaining way!
Common thought is that they can be traced back to a book written in 1480 called the "Book of St Albans"; a compilation of writings about hunting. One of the essays was thought to be written by a Dame Juliana Berners (or possibly Berns) who was possibly the Prioress of a nunnery near St. Albans in the UK. She is traditionally believed to come from an affluent family, and there are two schools of thought concerning the motive behind the nouns: One is that they reflected the aristocratic wish that the names they attributed to game be distinguishable from the names the peasantry gave game, and the other is that they were written never meant to be taken seriously. But taken seriously they were! You will find many of these names used as accepted academic terms in scholarly articles.
Here are some collective nouns for your entertainment. This list is in no way exhaustive - and you may also wish to do an internet search for “collective nouns” to find that there are also some collective nouns attributed to another intriguing species: The human!
- A bloat of hippos
- A wisdom of wombats
- A rhumba of rattlesnakes
- A quiver of cobras
- An unkindness of ravens
- A memory of elephants
- A mischief of mice
- An intrusion of cockroaches
- A crash (or stubbornness) of rhinos
- A fever of stingrays
- A murder (or storytelling) of crows
- A parliament of owls
- An ambush of tigers
Do you have a fascination for all creatures great and small? Perhaps a penchant for words?
For courses on pets, click here: http://www.acseduonline.com/courses/pet-care-25
For courses on wildlife, click here: http://www.acseduonline.com/courses/wildlife-and-zoology-22
For courses on writing, click here: http://www.acseduonline.com/courses/writing-journalism-9
