English names for
groups various creatures are often bizarre. Many of the stranger collective nouns came from the
Boke of St. Albans. Most lists don't include a "parliament of rooks" any longer. Lists of collective animal names are available for
children and
adults. Though, oddly there doesn't seem to be a collective name for humans as a species, numerous names (mostly silly) exist for types of
human groups.
Dispute does exist in the world of collective nouns. Officially monkeys are grouped in "troops", but most people would agree that the proper term for a group of monkeys is
barrel . However debate seems to have been closed on the subject of the proper term for a group of
tentacle monsters (NSFW).
Of course, you have to know how the
proper grammar when using collective nouns.
posted by sotonohito
on Aug 10, 2005 -
33 comments
