This morning I was woken up by a pandemonium in the garden and reminded again that that is, in fact, the perfect word for a group of wild parrots. Whenever I drive by Laguna Rosada nearby, I admire the flamingos and whoever dubbed a group of them “flamboyance”; it is really fitting. But within my …

While it is not real (but should be), I really love the joke that a group of baboons is called “a Congress” (even if its mean to the baboons) As for real things, “A smack of jellyfish” has to be one of my favourite name for a collection of the animals.

I’m confused I think by fiskskola then @jensu . Is it not “fish school” as in “school of fish”? (I saw it once on a multi-pack of candy.)

[image] bergylta: While it is not real (but should be), I really love the joke that a group of baboons is called “a Congress” I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress! 1776, Broadway mu…

No, fiskskola is not a word I’ve ever heard – the Swedish word for ‘school of fish’ would be fiskstim, where stim is ‘a group of (swimming) animals’. Fiskskola would mean either a school for fish or a school where you learn about fish.

That makes sense. As I said it was on candy packaging (you can guess which). Odd how different languages are. Swedish uses a few words for all types of groupings, English recycles words in new ways, and I have always liked how German seems to come up with new words for concepts seemingly overnight.…

It is a funny thing, in English, that some collective nouns are so comfortable that we use them without thinking (pride of lions, pod of whales, pack of wolves, gaggle of geese, etc.), but others are rarely heard and would probably elicit a few strange looks in conversation (e.g., parliament of rave…

Creative and clever terms! For the slugs en masse - how about a “slugfest” ? As for a “pandemonium” of parrots --it’s great, and alliterative with the “Ps” - but I’d rather call them a “cacophany”

[image] WeeCorbie: glaring of cats Not a herd? :scream_cat:

Have you tried to herd cats? (I use herd of cats, though, too, exactly because I like how funny-looking it sounds.)

Speaking collectively

Nature Talk

dlevitis October 9, 2022, 8:27pm 17

Collective nouns for animals in English are sometimes known as “terms of venery” because of their supposed association with hunting. https://www.proofreadingservices.com/pages/nouns-of-venery

Topic		Replies	Views
Weird animal group names Nature Talk	50	82611	July 13, 2021
Poof! You can now only insult people using animal names. What will you be using? Nature Talk	101	3685	August 10, 2025
Silly names that are actually in use for animals Nature Talk common-names , silliness	66	74535	June 23, 2020
Great, funny, or weird species names in other languages Nature Talk	41	15559	December 17, 2020
What are some nature related nicknames you’ve come up with? Nature Talk question , fun , common-names	45	15097	November 10, 2022

Speaking collectively

Related topics