Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Patty hasn't been doing her fair share of blogging...

...and it's a weeknight, and it's around midnight (earworm alert!), so I'm still not going to do my fair share because I should have been in bed more than an hour ago. But I'll offer this: I've spent the past few days, for reasons I don't feel like explaining, pondering collective nounsnouns that refer to a group of people or things. You know, like "gaggle of geese" or the less well-known "crash of rhinoceroses" and "murder of crows." Anyway, on my way home from work Thursday, I came up with at least four good collective nouns:
  • Curtsy of debutantes
  • Ditz of sorority girls (or blonds, or whatever group you care to stereotype)
  • Entitlement of Baby Boomers
  • Hallucination of hippies
So I was wondering: How do I get in on the official creation of collective nouns? Because I think I've got potential, man... 

6 comments:

La Professora said...

No doubt you've found the list of animal collective nouns. My favorites are a rabble of butterflies, a parliament of owls (I always tell my students politicians are bird-brains), and a leash of greyhounds.

The easiest way to get your chosen collective noun into the accepted norm is to use it often enough that it becomes part of the common parlance.

Can I add one? A jerk of exes.

Patty Mallett said...

I like: A jerk of exes.

As for your comment that "politicians are bird-brains"? D'oh! I forgot to list my favorite of the ones I had come up with: A corruption of public officials...

Lars Larson said...

A "Comfort of Believers"
A "Ditto of Conservatives"
A "Tattoo of Triathletes"
A "Cadence of Runners"

Robert E. Zeitner said...

A perseverance of triathletes
I'm pleased to have you sucked in to the practice of venery.

JC Dill said...

Hey Jef and Patty, are you keeping this a secret? If so, the cat's out of the bag:

http://unitedfeatures.com/?title=Bio:NEA_Holiday_strip

http://comics.com/frazz_holiday/2010-12-06/

Sarah said...

Love your additions to the collective nouns. I may start using them.

I was hoping your earworm would be Carrie Newcomer's song listing animal collective nouns. I couldn't find a video of it to link to, but did find the lyrics. Enjoy.