The Strangest Collective Nouns in English
You’ve probably heard the fanciful phrases “a murder of crows,” “a conspiracy of lemurs,” or even better, “a flamboyance of flamingos.” These are known as terms of venery — collective nouns that refer to groups of animals. When outside of the animal kingdom, there are collective nouns that apply to
physical objects or people of various persuasions. Some of these collective nouns are surprising, so let’s look at 10 strange examples. This collective noun first appeared in the 1486 Book of St. Albans, where it was written in Middle English as neuthriuyng of iogoleris. (The letter “J” was the final...
