Collective Nouns of Venery!

[PlusSixPelican]

For those not in the know, collective nouns are those terms for a group of things, like a sloth of bears, a murder of crows, or a blush of boys. Yes, it's apparently blush.

Does anyone have any favorites of these, and/or suggestions for the collective noun for various things, like orcs, dragons, or lawyers. (Or some other wacky thing you think of.)

[TaiLiu]

"Look, father! There's a tumbling of Rogues!"

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

Back when I was in college, I came up with "foible of freshmen," of which I was and am pretty proud.

[Shadow of the Sun]

According to wikipedia and a number of other internet sources, the collective noun for ponies is a marmalade.

So the Ponythread in Media is a marmalade. Huh.

[Brother Oni]

I'm quite fond of a parliament of rooks.

Given the common joke of 'What do you call a lawyer at the bottom of the sea? A good start.', I propose another collective noun for a group of lawyers be a 'drowning of lawyers'.

Looking up the wikipedia page, it has 'a flourish of strumpets' as a collective noun for *cough* ladies of negotiable affection.

[Tebryn]

Interesting one for Wild Cats is a Destruction. A Destruction of Puma.

[Aedilred]

I always liked a clowder of cats.

As for fantasy creatures, a condescension of elves, perhaps?

[Eldan]

I'm looking at the Wikipedia list, right now. A few interesting ones:

A bike of ants.
A shrewdness of apes.
A coffle of asses.
A dissimulation of birds.
A draught of butlers.
A rabble of butterflies.
A glaring or pounce of cats.
A gulp of cormorants.
A skein of ducks.
A fesnyng of Ferrets.
An observance of hermits.
A charm, murder or tiding of magpies.
A barrel or cartload of monkeys.
A superfluity of nuns.
A crash of rhinoceroses.
A rout of snails.
A phalanx of storks.
A lamentation or eyrar of swans.
A zeal of zebras.


And thanks to Terry Pratchett, An argument of witches.

Edit: by pure logic, a group of owlbears is a Parliamoth.

[Scarlet Knight]

Once again Wikipedia is wrong.

Every hunter knows you shoot at a flock of ducks/birds.

[Eldan]

According to Wikipedia, there's several correct ones for many of those animals. Ducks have five or six that are possible, and it also depends on whether they are alive, dead, flying, on land or on water.

[Silverbit]

Another name I've heard for a group of ferrets is a business. I've no idea what a group of elves would be called (a salon?) but it does remind me of a semi-relevant joke I've seen on here:
Two elves walk into a bar.
There's now a bar elf subrace.

[Tebryn]

I always liked a clowder of cats.

As for fantasy creatures, a condescension of elves, perhaps?

Maybe an Arrogance of Elves

That makes me think...what about other fantasy races?

{table]Name|Species
Spite|Demon
Tavern|Dwarf
Gaggle, Troupe|Gnome
Rage, Horde| Orc
Arrogance, Condescension| Elf
Flight, Hoard|Dragon
Brunch|Hafling
College|Mermaid/Man[/table]

[Feytalist]

I just tend to default to a gaggle of everything.

[Eldan]

I suggest:

A wordiness of gnomes. A shortness of halflings. A mine of dwarves.

How about classes.
A tribe of barbarians. A church of clerics. An academy of wizards. A choir of bards. What's fitting for sorcerers?

[The Succubus]

An unkindness of ravens.

What's the collective term for a group of succubi? :smallamused:

[Shadow of the Sun]

An unkindness of ravens.

What's the collective term for a group of succubi? :smallamused:

An orgy, I think.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

I think elves and dwarves should take the collective nouns associated with cats and dogs, respectively, since they follow the Cat-Dog Gender Law; all elves are ladies, all dwarves are dudes. It is science.

EDIT: I almost forgot to capitalize everyone word in "Cat-Dog Gender Law" to show how totally serious I am about it. :smallwink:

DoublEdit: Condescension of elves is actually the best, though. Maybe "Stereotype" for Dwarves?

[Asta Kask]

What's the collective noun for nouns? A collective of nouns?

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

Vacant, if anyone recalls him, had a great collective noun for nouns. I believe it amounted to either a Redundancy or a Meta of nouns.

[Eldan]

What's the collective term for a group of succubi? :smallamused:

A Seduction? A Sin? A Lusting? A Depravity? An Inspiration?

According to TVtropes, it's a Difference of Elves :smalltongue:

[Asta Kask]

A Seduction? A Sin? A Lusting? A Depravity? An Inspiration?

A gang-bang? A damnation?

[Tebryn]

According to TVtropes, it's a Difference of Elves :smalltongue:

Rather fitting really.

[Lorsa]

I actually didn't know about nouns. This causes things to make a lot more sense in retrospect. Could you say for example "a stink of goblins?"

[SiuiS]

For those not in the know, collective nouns are those terms for a group of things, like a sloth of bears, a murder of crows, or a blush of boys. Yes, it's apparently blush.

Does anyone have any favorites of these, and/or suggestions for the collective noun for various things, like orcs, dragons, or lawyers. (Or some other wacky thing you think of.)

I've always been partial to an unkindness of ravens.


According to wikipedia and a number of other internet sources, the collective noun for ponies is a marmalade.

So the Ponythread in Media is a marmalade. Huh.

Eeeew


I'm quite fond of a parliament of rooks.

Ooh, nice.


Given the common joke of 'What do you call a lawyer at the bottom of the sea? A good start.', I propose another collective noun for a group of lawyers be a 'drowning of lawyers'.

Looking up the wikipedia page, it has 'a flourish of strumpets' as a collective noun for *cough* ladies of negotiable affection.

A flourish is my favorite now.
Also, hey! Lawyers aren't that bad. Stupid stereotypes!


I just tend to default to a gaggle of everything.

I know, right?

Hm. How meta can we get? A group of everyone could be an all of y'alls?

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

I actually didn't know about nouns. This causes things to make a lot more sense in retrospect. Could you say for example "a stink of goblins?"

You could, although I think "goofball of goblins" is more appropriate for the Pathfinder version. :smalltongue: Stink is great for 3.5, though.

Also, text-fu reveals that I misrememered Vacant's collective noun; his invention was not a "meta" of nouns but, rather, a "meta" of collective nouns, which makes a lot more sense and is a lot funnier. I didn't guess this because very few things he says make sense or are very funny. :smalltongue:

If I verbally abuse him enough, maybe he'll post again and I won't only talk to him in three-word texts anymore.

[The_Snark]

Hm. How meta can we get? A group of everyone could be an all of y'alls?

A playground of forumites?

[Lorsa]

A song of bards?

A forest of dryads?

A cuteness of catgirls?

A fullness of breasts?

Am I understanding this properly? :smallsmile:

[Eldan]

Forumite is one of my favourite words.

It also works the other way round. A Forum of Playgrounders.

[Lorsa]

About the lust-demons, wouldn't it be most proper to call it:

A kiss of succubi?

Also, if a noun can be used more than once we really should have:

A murder of adventurers.

And if it isn't already in use, as a badge of honor to a certain book-series it would be:

A clash of kings.

After which I will suggest:

A drama of queens.

[Eldan]

I like murder of adventurers, but I think "party" is already too traditional here.

Also traditional:
An explosion of player plans :smallwink:


If we go by Game of Thrones, I also suggest a Slapping of Princes.

[nedz]

A sneak of Goblins

A beard of Dwarves

A chorus of Bards

A concert of Psions

A hullabaloo of Barbarians

A smorgasbord of Halflings

A wood of Druids

A dying of Fighters

[Lorsa]

I like murder of adventurers, but I think "party" is already too traditional here.

A party is a specific group of adventurers, working together. A murder could be any large group of them.

[Eldan]

You know, thinking of Dorkness Rising, it should really be a Pile of Bards.

[Lorsa]

You know, thinking of Dorkness Rising, it should really be a Pile of Bards.

:smallbiggrin:

[Asta Kask]

A purring of cats.

[Lorsa]

A purring of cats.

Cats already exist with several nouns. Maybe this can be added? I quite like the 'a pounce of cats' myself. :smallsmile:

[Lorsa]

I really need to go to a lecture but since I started thinking about this:

A haunting of ghosts, A bite of vampires.

[Asta Kask]

I say we need more absurd ones.

A lettuce of owlbears.

A symphony of titans.

A windowpane of aliens.

[Brother Oni]

A bite of vampires.

Shouldn't that be 'A sparkle of vampires'? :smalltongue:

Don't hurt me!

[Lorsa]

Shouldn't that be 'A sparkle of vampires'? :smalltongue:

Don't hurt me!

I don't need to hurt you. The world will take care of that all by itself.


Also, for a collection of random monsters it would be:

A manual of monsters.

[Asta Kask]

A munchkinness of Clerics/Druids.

A weakness of Fighters.

[Eldan]

A Gygax of Traps.

[Brother Oni]

A Gainax of boobs?

[The Succubus]

A fourchan of trolls? :smalltongue:

[Eldan]

A comment-section of idiots?

[BWR]

I can't believe no one posted this yet. (http://wondermark.com/566/)

Edit: oh, anc my gf and some friends came up with "a gaggle of courtiers" in one of their L5R games.

[PlusSixPelican]

The collective for angels is a chorus, I thought? Also, like, for Succubi..

~A brothel of Succubi.
~An orgy of Succubi.
~A snuggling of Succubi.
~A fondling of Succubi.

Anyways, hmm. Thinking of an original one...

A swooning of fangirls? <3

[Cespenar]

A dungeon of dragons?

[dgnslyr]

An unkindness of ravens.

What's the collective term for a group of succubi? :smallamused:

Could I volunteer "an embrace of succubi"? Naturally, a pair would have to be a brace.

Hmm, what else?

A row of fighters?

A sheaf of archers?

A convention of clerics?

A ward of wizards?

A grouse of goblins?

A fashion of fey?

[mattie_p]

A windowpane of aliens.

My wife suggests the proper terminology would be "A Probe of Aliens."

[Kindablue]

An overabundance of collective nouns is another good one.

[Asta Kask]

A dearth of common sense.

God knows my roleplaying group has that.

[Ebon_Drake]

I really need to go to a lecture but since I started thinking about this:

A haunting of ghosts, A bite of vampires.

As a V:TM fan, I have to suggest a coterie of vampires.


I can't believe no one posted this yet. (http://wondermark.com/566/)
...
A district (http://www.imdb.co.uk/title/tt1136608/) of prawns. Excellent.

[SyntaxError]

A parliament of owls.
A congregation of alligators.
A crash of rhinoceroses.
A memory of elephants.
A clutter of squirrels.
An intrusion of cockroaches.
A hurtle of sheep.
A gulp of cormorants.
A pandemonium of parrots.
A rhumba of rattlesnakes.
A murmuration of starlings.

All from the San Diego Zoo (http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/got_questions_groups_list.html).