Collective nouns

[The Exploding Vole]

Among other things, it's apparently a smack of jellyfish and a parliament of owls. But would you seriously use this sort of nomenclature in conversation?

"Where've you been?"

"Went for a dip in the sea? Man, you should have seen the jellyfish. A huge smack of them!"

"A what?"

"A smack."

"A smack of jellyfish?"

"Yes."

Who the hell decided to use the word smack in this context anyway? And why weren't they pulled up for it?

Has anyone here used the word smack to define a group of jellyfish without attracting disparaging comments and yes I am bored.

[Guest]

Collective nouns

An unkindness of ravens. A murder of crows. I'm sure I've heard both used (and not just by trashy English crime novelists)

[Toby Gymshorts]

Collective nouns

I believe the collective noun for a group of bastards is "a right shower"; as in "a right shower of bastards".

Could be wrong.

[Alderman Barnes]

Collective nouns

Well there's a weird coincidence. I saw a load of rooks this morning and was wondering what the collective noun is - it turns out it's a parliament as well.

[Andy C]

Collective nouns

Many of them are hunting terms, with quite long roots. Others are more jocular and I suspect there was a bit of a parlour-game type vogue for inventing them in Edwardian drawing-rooms. Such as the very academic a Lakh of Principals.

[The Exploding Vole]

Collective nouns

I like the idea of a jellyfish hunt.

[Wyatt Earp]

Collective nouns

I've got a book about this (I was give it, OK?) by James Lipton off of "In The Actors' Studio". He agrees with Andy: it all started out with hunters' terms of art, then there was a whole of whimsical coinages around the turn of the century. He draws a distinction between those and your outright puns and plays on words, such as "a quire of angels" and (for homosexuals) "a packet of fags".

It's a rubbish book.

[Incandenza]

Collective nouns

Why on earth (heh heh) is the nut from "Inside the Actors Studio" writing a book about that?

[Wyatt Earp]

Collective nouns

No idea, but I think it's the same guy, albeit when he was much younger. Same name; same air of gentle whimsy that makes you want to dance maniacally on the twisted and mangled remains of his slaughtered corpse.

[WOM]

Collective nouns

Why on Earth... wrote:

Same name; same air of gentle whimsy that makes you want to dance maniacally on the twisted and mangled remains of his slaughtered corpse.

Ah...Garrison Keillor Syndrome. Nasty business.

[Wyatt Earp]

Collective nouns

Worse. Worse than Keillor.

Worse.

[WOM]

Collective nouns

We have a bargain basement version of him here. You may have heard him. Stuart McLean. Quaint tales of rural goings-on, told in that witty way that makes elderly women chuckle and grown men want to kick their radio speakers over and over and over. Tales from the Vinyl Cafe. You may want to give it a listen.

[Bruno]

Collective nouns

What should the collective noun for this group be? I think it should be a cunt of OTFers.

[Gangster Octopus]

Collective nouns

Do better.

[WOM]

Collective nouns

Clique and lynch-mob have been floated recently.

[Incandenza]

Collective nouns

BRAINS TRUST

[Uosdwis R Dewoh]

Collective nouns

Birds have the best collective nouns.

A wake of vultures.

A siege of herons.

[Reed John]

Collective nouns

I like the idea of a jellyfish hunt.