A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in AWAD and
Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
Last week's theme featured a series of collective nouns and invited
Readers to contribute their own coinages. What an outpouring of clever word
Brewing it produced! It was a treat to read the creative expressions; however,
winnowing a few from over a thousand to include here was not.
While these inventions were no doubt concocted in a playful spirit, one
can't fail to notice a reflection of life itself in the fanciful idioms
of day-to-day experience. From "a succor of grandmas" (Daniel Cummings
dan@polysense.com) to "a patience of tech support callers" (A.J. Coco,
ajcoco@marshal.co.orange.ca.us), and "a whatever of teenagers" (Amy
Guskin(aguskin@eamdc.com) to "a digression on web-searchers" (J.J. Hill
library@alznsw.asn.au), we witness our fears, follies, annoyances and
attitudes.
The collective nouns ranged from those used to describe people from the
world's oldest profession, "an anthology of pros," to the newest one,
"a spider of webmasters," both suggested by a large number of readers.
Almost every other calling in between was included. It seems the law
profession is everyone's favorite choice for flagellation. Here are
some of the choicest:
a codicil of lawyers Ann Azevedo (donnann@tiac.net)
an objection of lawyers Hamish MacEwan (amish@macewan.gen.nz)
a tragedy of lawyers Bob Nisonger (bnisonger@backweb.com)
a brief of lawyers Dan (dcovino@manu.com), Amy Guskin
(aguskin@eamdc.com)
a slime of lawyers Helene Wenger (helene@bkwk.com)
a greed of lawyers Erickson (kepraha@mbox.vol.cz)
a remora of lawyers John Virkkala (jvirkk@aol.com)
a cheat of lawyers J. Watts (jwatts@rosemail.rose.hp.com)
a mercenary of lawyers Marlene Caroselli (mccpd@aol.com)
As may be imagined, many took shots at other occupations
Stereotypically contemptuous, such as tax-collectors and government officials. Enough
bashing already. Let's see some other selections:
a circle of geometricians John Prowse
(jprowse@integratec.com.au)
a balm of grandmothers Sandy Troth
(sjtroth@mindspring.com)
a cylinder of CDs Ronald DelPorto
(ronald_delporto@steris.com)
a wildcard of hackers Tom Guest (tom@division.co.uk)
a hindrance of tech-support people Deborah C.K. Wenger
dwenger@amlaw.com
a blizzard of AOL disks Elyse Chapman
(elyse@compuserve.com)
a host of nameservers J-Mag Guthrie (j-mag@brokersys.com)
a monica of sins Peter Olsen (pcolsen@draper.com)
a row of knitters B. Martin (bdmartin@mail.cvn.net)
a silicone of Baywatch reruns Duck (duck@hellskitchen.com)
a clutch of mechanics Lucy Dickinson (lrd@worldway.com)
a phile of lovers Shirley Woods
(shirleywoods@compuserve.com)
a stoppit of parents Dirk Vanderbeke
(vanderbeke@t-online.de)
a conspiracy of traffic lights Thomas Maslen (maslen@pobox.com)
a purchase of senators Maurizio C. Bettini-Saitta
(mcbs@usa.com)
a dump of spammers Catherine Carol Edge
(ccedge@indiana.edu)
a crop of plant scientists Patsy Evans
(pevans@canr1.cag.uconn.edu)
a collage of Post-it notes mbhumphry@caltex.co.za
a drove of taxi cabs Jody Drake (jody@mutrux.com)
a wad of gum-chewers Linda
Bosserman(linda.bosserman@cos.srs.com)
a dictionary of linguaphiles Glenn Glazer (gglazer@ucla.edu)
a catch of jugglers Ann (annc@idir.net)
a byte of programmers Dave Horsfall
(dave@fgh.geac.com.au)
an array of programmers Amod (prk@vsnl.com)
a clique of computer mice Crystal Cutler
(batbrat@saws.softcom.net)
a portfolio of stock brokers Durgesh Rao
(durgesh@saathi.ncst.ernet.in)
a stack of newspapermen Gary Belkin (dnrme@webtv.net)
an obfuscation of politicians Ed Paynter (efp@pop.inetdirect.net)
a plurality of group nouns Subash Chandra K.V.
(subbu@amiindia.co.in)
a matrix of mathematicians Shawn Griffith
(shawn-griffith@raytheon.com)
a suite of chocolates Robert Tolmach
(rtolmach@micro-net.com)
a passion of poets Khatru (mckennml@wellsfargo.com)
an imelda of shoes Rita M. Markey
(rita.m.markey@db.com)
a sneer of Mac users DBgammon (dbgammon@nbnet.nb.ca)
a segregation of racists Hofmeyr (wrlhof@iafrica.com.na)
an intimidation of gargoyles Harry M. Kachline
(apu4039@corecom.net)
a sum of accountants Austen Naughten
(anaughten@oxfam.org.uk)
a counting of accountants Dean Kielpinski
(trystero@senet.com.au)
a number of accountants Dan Olinger (dolinger@bju.edu)
a mass of priests Jim Zehr (jzehr@sauder.com)
a class of computer programmers Jim Watters
(jwatters@cadvision.com)
[a class of OOP programmers, to be more precise. -Anu]
an obfuscation of user manuals A. R. White (nomdenet@isi.edu)
an enterprise of trekkies David Allen (david@rsgsystems.com)
a beam of trekkies Cynthia J Hernandez
(yo109cita@juno.com)
a grab-bag of purse-snatchers Susan Williams (susianwil@aol.com)
a 404 of former websites Larry Sherman
(larry@slac.stanford.edu)
a of nihilists James S. Hawtree (raph@fnal.gov)
a muddle of deans Michael Grant
(michael.grant@colorado.edu)
an interference of mothers-in-law John Weston
(john.weston@talk21.com)
a blather of chat-room participants Jeff Marx (jeffmarx@aol.com)
a confusion of multi-disk CD players Robert Tolmach
(rtolmach@micro-net.com)
a brace of orthopedists/orthodontists (suggested by a lot of people)
The most popular collective term was a giggle of girls. Some other
collective nouns that employ spoonerism, pun, blend, and other
linguistic devices:
a wunch of bankers
a somephony of music critics Dinesh Katiyar
(katiyar@cs.stanford.edu)
an ear of colonels John Imhof (n2vw@skyhigh.com),
Projeto Alcance
(alcance@iconet.com.br)
a duke of URLs Ric Bailey (bailey@grid.com)
a herd of hearing aids Robert Tolmach
(rtolmach@micro-net.com)
a dissemblage of politicians Mike Trebing
(Mike.Trebing@phil.frb.org)
a silence of lambs Fredrock (fkepler@eyescape.com)
Ann Elise Smoot (ann.elise@dial.pipex.com) asked, "I've really enjoyed
The words this week, being an animal lover. I read recently that a group of
larks is called an exaltation. Is this true? It doesn't confirm this in
my dictionary. If it is true, what a wonderful fact!"
Yes, Ann, it is "an exaltation of larks." In fact this is the title of
a book by James Lipton. This delightful book is a treasury of collective
nouns from whimsical (a split of schizoids) to inspiring (a blur of
Impressionists). Find it in your local library or a friendly
neighborhood bookstore. If you need more, try "A Crash of Rhinoceroses" by Rex
Collings.
Francis S.M. Barnett (fbarnett@kamloopslawyers.com) sent this
correction,
"If you announce that you are in a sounder of swines, the grammarian
ranger will not mourn your passing. Swine is the singular and plural for this
usage (although for colloquial usage as a term of contempt, the plural
with an "s" is acceptable)." Thank you!
We close with a couple of stories. From L. Rivlin
(l.rivlin@btinternet.com):
"A few years ago, John Major invited some ex-prime ministers for a
get-together at 10, Downing Street. I think it was Harold MacMillan,
Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher (I'm only
absolutely sure about MacMillan and Thatcher). While they were there,
Thatcher speculated about the proper word denoting a group of prime
ministers. MacMillan suggested that the correct term would be: a lack
of principals."