Have you come across any good collective nouns recently?
While catching up on Schott’s Vocab, a NYT blog by contributing op-ed columnist, Ben Schott, I noticed this post about “specific websites that serve a single purpose,” such as WhatColorIsTheEmpireStateBuilding.com and AbeVigoda.com. I admit I’m often curious about what the less obvious colors of the Empire State Building represent, so find that site useful when I remember to check it. And although I occasionally have thought that Abe Vigoda is dead, I wouldn’t go out of my way to find out. (I wish the man a continued long and happy life.)
In the comments section, one of the readers contributions caught my attention http://all-sorts.org/:
All Sorts is a collection of collective nouns that may or may not have found their way into the Oxford English Dictionary. If you think that a charismatic collective is far superior to a dullard ‘bunch’ or ‘flock’ then this is the place for you.
The site trolls Twitter for mentions of proposed collective noun. Skeptical about how often collective nouns appear? Don’t be. There are dozens of pages on this site filled with these coinages. (If you’re interested in coining your own, use the hashtag #collectivenouns.)
I only read through the list on the homepage. No surprise that a preponderance pertain to Twitter. But there also were quite a variety of collective nouns for fascists — a falange of fascists and a cracken of fascists have a nice ring to them, but I wonder about an embarrassing uncle of fascists. Must make for interesting Thanksgiving dinner conversation. A sizzle of copywriters and a conciseness of copywriters are clever. And a giggle of schoolgirls and a fleck of nitpickers are inspired whimsy.
ShareA Glister of Goldfinches
Today, I happened upon this post: 75 tools, games and links for word lovers (I couldn’t bring myself to include the word “awesome” used in the title.)
Of course, I had to explore the list: vocabulary and word sites, dictionaries and thesauri, word and spelling games. I enjoy word games, but if I started clicking on any of those links, the day would be lost. Instead, I poked around at Vocabulary.com, specifically “word lists,” an obvious choice. As I was scanning the alphabetical lists, birds: collective nouns caught my eye.
A collective noun is a word used to describe a group of objects. Collective nouns specific to one kind of object, particularly animals, can be quite imaginative and even poetic. Some common ones are a pride of lions, a brood of hens, or a gaggle of geese. Maybe because I’m familiar with these they seem a little ordinary. But the collective nouns for birds list offers these gems: glister of goldfinches, shimmer of hummingbirds and skein of geese (in flight). Some terms are more playful and humorous: death row of turkeys, improbability of puffins, extinction of dodobirds.
So where do these terms come from? Who coined them? It turns out there is a term for these terms — venery. Interestingly, venery has two meanings: the gratification of sexual desire, or the practice or sport of hunting, the chase. Wikipedia notes that venery, as it relates to words for groups of animals, comes from the English tradition of hunting. Dating back several centuries. these terms were used by gentleman to distinguish themselves from the lower classes.
I’m still curious about the origins of these words. A footnote led me to the book, An Exaltation of Larks, by James Lipton, host of Inside the Actors’ Studio. In the introduction, Lipton points out that terms of venery were considered at one time to be the proper way to refer to different groups of animals no matter how “fanciful or frivolous” they seem. These days, no one would question your education if you failed to call a group of pheasants a nye of pheasants. On the other hand, you wouldn’t you refer to “a herd of fish or a school of elephants.”
I think we’re missing out on some of the color and charm of our language by not using, or at least knowing, more of these terms. I may never have the opportunity to point out a glister of goldfinches, but as the geese fly south, I may be able to slip a skein of geese into the conversation.
I ended my brief exploration by ordering “An Exaltation of Larks.” No doubt I will revisit this topic once I’ve had a chance to read it. I also ordered several other word-related books, which I’m sure will provide additional blog fodder. More to come.
“Flu” Outbreak
This “flu” certainly isn’t life-threatening or at epidemic proportions. But it’s one that can make me break out in a cold sweat when I hear it. 
What is it? The pronounciation of the words affluent, affluence and influence. I’ve noticed an outbreak in placing the stress on the second syllable — af-FLU-ent; af-FLU-ence; in-FLU-ence — rather than on the first.
Have I been wrong all these years saying “AF-flu-ent” and “IN-flu-ence” or has there been a shift in pronounciation that I wasn’t aware of?
To find out, off to the dictionary I go. Both pronounciations are acceptable for affluent and affluence according to The American Heritage Third Edition and Merriam-Webster. But for influence, only the stress on the first syllable is acceptable. I also checked the word “effluent.” To me, af-FLU-ent (or uh-FLU-ent, which is another variation) sounds like the way to pronounce “effluent,” especially when used to mean sewage. But according to my sources, it has only one pronounciation with the stress on the first syllable. I’m not sure why affluent has two variations but the other words don’t. If anyone knows, please share.
Why this blog?
Words are my business. I’m a freelance writer so I need to skillfully use words to grab and hold a reader’s interest.
No easy task, that.
More often than I care to admit, I find myself grasping for a more precise word when I write or grappling with a sentence to make it clearer. Consult a dictionary and thesaurus, you say. Well, of course. But I’ve decided to go a step further and work on improving my vocabulary. I’m a little self-conscious admitting I’m a writer whose vocabulary could use some polishing. But I’m taking these words of writer and teacher William Zinsser to heart: “You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. [Emphasis mine.] Master the small gradations between words… . Learn to use them with originality and care. Value them for their strength and their precision.”
And that’s what this blog is about: my curiosity about words, my efforts to master their gradations and my musings on the original (and sometimes, not so original) way writers use them. You can expect at least a weekly post about words that intrigue me, their “shades of meaning,” the sometimes comical and convoluted use of language, and anything else that piques my linguistic curiosity.
I hope that will pique your interest, too, and you’ll visit often. Be sure to bring your curiosity along and share your musings.
