Day: May 30, 2009

Collective nouns are a fascinating quirk in the English language. As the Rinkworks site would put it in their fabulous collection of collective nouns, “One of the craziest oddities of the English language is that there are so many different collective nouns that all mean “group” but which are specific to what particular thing there is a group of: a herd of elephants, a crowd of people, a box of crayons, a pad of paper, etc. There is great diversity of collective nouns associated with animals, from a sleuth of bears to a murder of crows.” There are interesting collective nouns for various professions – a sneer of butlers or a converting of preachers, a blackening of shoemakers and an obeisance of servants. A jail would have a pity of prisoners and maybe even a talent of gamblers. (more…)