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 …

Bat and butterfly are similar in German. Fledermaus and Sommervoegel. Much prefer summer bird to butter?! fly. Clowder (must apply to young kittens then) - recorded since 1801, of clutter, itself from clot, from Old English clott (“round mass, lump”), from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (hence cognate wi…

[image] DianaStuder: Sommervoegel I’m German and I’ve never heard anyone use that for butterflies. The German word is Schmetterling. No idea where this is coming from, so I had to look it up. Apparently “from an East Central German dialect word, equivalent to Schmetten (“cream”) +‎ diminutive…

Oh, I’ve heard that once or twice used to describe sea otters or man-o-wars – which also do float, I suppose.

It’s interesting, close to what “butterfly” is then, right? Here their name has the same root as “woman”, as it was believed passed female souls were in butterflies and moths, so they came to the light of houses as they wanted to visit relatives.

I initially read their post as “a chowder of cats” and that will be the only collective known I use from now on, mostly on the coast where folks have tons of cats of course, it’s to be pronounced “chowdah”

[image] owlshead-wren: Oh, I’ve heard that once or twice used to describe sea otters I learned the term “raft” to describe a group of seat otters.

I feel that collective terms are very useful as a quick way to describe species who routinely exhibit collective behaviour, especially when there is existing confusion with that species’ common name. Case in point: the Opiliones. Common name: Harvestmen, or Daddy-Long-Legs. See? That last name is …

My spoken German comes from Switzerland and I have heard my MIL use it. Berner Oberland.

I love harvestmen, we have some really cool ones in caves :)

I’ve heard of a clowder as well; it comes from “clott,” meaning a lump, ball, or mass–the same Old English root as “clot” and “clutter.” According to a few search hits (including Yahoo Sports , for some reason!), it’s a glaring of cats when the cats don’t trust each other. And, adorably, it’s a kindl…

Speaking collectively

Nature Talk

Topic		Replies	Views
Weird animal group names Nature Talk	50	82356	July 13, 2021
Poof! You can now only insult people using animal names. What will you be using? Nature Talk	101	3674	August 10, 2025
Silly names that are actually in use for animals Nature Talk common-names , silliness	66	74501	June 23, 2020
Great, funny, or weird species names in other languages Nature Talk	41	15558	December 17, 2020
What are some nature related nicknames you’ve come up with? Nature Talk question , fun , common-names	45	15086	November 10, 2022

Speaking collectively

Related topics