A Horde of Humans and Other Collectives - Page 6

According to the OED, no one decides on what is the correct collective noun for a group of creatures. However, if you browse the internet there are many lists of collective nouns for animals and other items. It seems we are fond of them. There are books that use them as the title and photographers who use them to name their photographs, so where did they come from? They go back to The Book of Saint Albans - specifically the 1595 edition, which included lists of both useful and humorous collective nouns. Here are some of the waggish collectives that we can still appreciate today a "diligence of messengers", a "melody of harpers", a "blast of hunters", "a subtlety of sergeants", "a gaggle of women", and a "superfluity of nuns". Today the tradition continues with many puns and other jokes used in the names given to indicate groups of animals.

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