What’s in a collective noun?
Knowing the collective nouns for unusual, rare or rarely spotted animals is one of those life skills that will get you absolutely nowhere except perhaps into the winners circle at your local pub’s trivia night. But take it from us, if you’re on a bucket list trip to Africa or spotting elusive animals anywhere in the wild, or even visiting a zoo, knowing a few of them can be so much fun.
There are collective nouns we all know. A parliament of owls. A swarm of ants. A pride of lions. An army of caterpillars. A pack of dogs. A troop of monkeys. A pod of dolphins. As it happens, hippos have probably more collective nouns to describe them than any other creature. Refer to them as a crash, a herd, a raft, a pod, a thunder, a school, a huddle, or – my favourite – a bloat, and you’ll be correct every time. Some collective nouns, like an intrusion of cockroaches, you’d prefer never to see at all.
We’re not sure who dreamt these collective nouns up but we love them nonetheless. You can share the meat tray with us.
I particularly love the onomatopoeia involved in some of the collective nouns:
A RUMPUS of BABOONS
A CRASH of RHINOS
A CACKLE of HYENAS
A SOUNDER of WARTHOGS
And the alliteration in others:
A DAZZLE of ZEBRAS
A FLAMBOYANCE of FLAMINGOES
A WISDOM of WOMBATS
The visual puns of collective nouns are often strong:
An AMORY of AARDVARKS
A STRETCH of GIRAFFES
A SKULK of JACKALS
A BUSINESS of MONGOOSE
A BASK of CROCODILES
A PRICKLE of PORCUPINES
And others just boast a deep understanding of animal behaviour:
A SHREWDNESS of VERVET MONKEYS
An OBSTINACY of BUFFALOES
An ASCENSION OF LARKS
A SCOURGE of MOSQUITOES
Admittedly several animals have multiple collective nouns that apply. But who is really interested in a HERD of elephants or wildebeest or rhinos when you can have a MEMORY or an IMPLAUSABILITY or a STUBBORNNESS respectively.
It doesn’t get much more poetic than that.
