Friday, August 1, 2014

Friday fun

I caught up on NPR's "Studio 360" files this week, including an interview with James Lipton.  Lipton, in case you didn't know, is a linguist and playwright who wrote the book on collective nouns--An Exaltation of Larks. It turns out a bunch of people in the late 1400s enjoyed  creating new collectives. They were the ones who came up with  pride of lions, leap of leopards, and murder of crows. (What do you call a pair of crows? Attempted murder.)

It was a delightful conversation, complete with Lipton's judgments on listeners' submissions--a salutation of yoga instructors. A deck of Trekkies. A rave of deejays. And my favorite, a hedge of investment bankers.

The game sounded like so much fun, I came up with a few of my own about the kinds of people I know. A pen of writers. A staff of musicians. A palette of artists. A skein of knitters. A bed of gardeners. A hush of librarians.

Now it's your turn. Got any collective nouns to share with the world?


15 comments:

  1. Lovely words all. I like the animal collectives - a congregation of alligators, a convocation of eagles, and many more.

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    1. Thanks, Rita. For some reason I've always been partial to covey of quails, perhaps because of an illustration of quails in a kids' book, or because we had quails in the woods behind my childhood home, or just because covey fits quails so well. It's derived from couvert, the French word for cover, as is covert (secret).

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  2. I love this, Nikki. It's much too good a diversion from writing :)
    How about
    A snapshot of tourists, a tumble of gymnasts, an alphabet of teachers, a warp of weavers, and a tinker of mechanics... I could do this all day,*sigh*.

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    1. A shop of retailers, a cockpit of pilots, a train of engineers. Must. Get. To. Work.

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  3. I could listen to James Lipton all day. I love him. This is so much fun - a counter of clerks, a brew of barristas, a kitchen of cooks. Must return to the writing cave. Great Post!

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  4. Great fun, Nikki! I'm partial to your hush of librarians, having been one. A murder of crows comes to mind.

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  5. Sandra, Lipton is amazing. So quick-witted. I love a brew of barristas. Jacqui, I was never a librarian, but have always loved libraries. I'm now a trustee at my local. Thanks to you both for stopping in.

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  6. Enjoyed the post! Thanks for the Friday smiles you engendered.

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  7. A truly delightful list of collective nouns, Nikki! I, too, am partial to that Hedge of Investment Bankers--a bit of sarcasm there as well. Hedges can be thick and snarly. And I've always loved Murder of Crows--as well as what I call (probably not original): A Quarrel of Crows. I like the alliteration in the latter. You should write a book with these!

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    1. Hmm, Nancy...I see a whole series here. Maybe crime stories? Thanks for the suggestion!

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  8. Charming post. I think I'm going to buy that book. How about a song of nightingales or a sprint of rabbits?

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  9. Now I am going to think about this all day...

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  10. Enjoy yourself, Brenda. And share any collectives you come up with.

    I learned a new one last weekend--a kettle of birds. It refers to a group of birds, in this case migrating broad-wing hawks, as they circle and rise in a thermal updraft before catching an air current headed in the right direction. If you watch them, you'll see how appropriate the term is.

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