The use of collective nouns for different creatures dates back to
the middle Ages - possibly the use of a very elaborate vocabulary was to
stress the fact that hunting and hawking were noble pursuits, and you
had to learn the whole vocabulary from an early age.
The classic list of collectives is attributed to Dame Juliana
Berners, said to have been a nun whose Book of St Albans was printed in
1486, probably circulated in MS well before that. As far as I know, she
is the souce for the 'gaggle of geese' and many others still in
circulation to some extent. The spelling of the original leaves
interpretation open on some of them. She gives what seems to be a
'desert of lapwings' but it is probably in modern spelling 'a deceit of
lapwings' (it's so hard to find the nest with the parents distracting by
broken-wing and other tricks). My version is in a reprint of recipes and
other material published as 'Stere hit well" from a MS in the Pepysian
Library, Cambridge (1972).
You can find quite as much as you want to know (if not more) about
collective nouns including many modern ones on the internet. It should
of course include 'a singular of a phoenix.'
Anthea Fleming
Ivanhoe (Vic)
wrote:
John
That is not quite true.
Though most of the collective nouns are, as you say, not words that
are, or were, in actual use, but rather words that appeared in some
literary work or were invented for the purpose, there are more than
the two words you ascribe. For example, it is certainly not unheard
of to talk about a covey of quail or a raft of ducks, at least here in
the States. I am sure there are a few others.
Regards,
Eric Jeffrey
Falls Church, VA
In a message dated 2/19/2006 9:00:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
There have been various threads on Birding-aus over the years
about collective nouns for groups of different types of birds, eg
a 'murder' of crows.
Birding-aus subscribers should realise that the invention of
collective nouns appropriate to different kinds of birds is simply
a literary parlour game of Victorian vintage, and does not reflect
actual usage either now, or at some time in the past.
The only collective nouns to use for groups of birds are:
English: a flock of X
American English: a bunch of X (or in the case of a large flock 'a
whole bunch of X')
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