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
[email protected]) to "a patience of tech support callers" (A.J. Coco,
[email protected]), and "a whatever of teenagers" (Amy
Guskin([email protected]) to "a digression on web-searchers" (J.J. Hill
[email protected]), 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 ([email protected])
an objection of lawyers Hamish MacEwan ([email protected])
a tragedy of lawyers Bob Nisonger ([email protected])
a brief of lawyers Dan ([email protected]), Amy Guskin
a slime of lawyers Helene Wenger ([email protected])
a greed of lawyers Erickson ([email protected])
a remora of lawyers John Virkkala ([email protected])
a cheat of lawyers J. Watts ([email protected])
a mercenary of lawyers Marlene Caroselli ([email protected])
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
a balm of grandmothers Sandy Troth
a cylinder of CDs Ronald DelPorto
a wildcard of hackers Tom Guest ([email protected])
a hindrance of tech-support people Deborah C.K. Wenger
a blizzard of AOL disks Elyse Chapman
a host of nameservers J-Mag Guthrie ([email protected])
a monica of sins Peter Olsen ([email protected])
a row of knitters B. Martin ([email protected])
a silicone of Baywatch reruns Duck ([email protected])
a clutch of mechanics Lucy Dickinson ([email protected])
a phile of lovers Shirley Woods
a stoppit of parents Dirk Vanderbeke
a conspiracy of traffic lights Thomas Maslen ([email protected])
a purchase of senators Maurizio C. Bettini-Saitta
a dump of spammers Catherine Carol Edge
a crop of plant scientists Patsy Evans
a collage of Post-it notes [email protected]
a drove of taxi cabs Jody Drake ([email protected])
a wad of gum-chewers Linda
Bosserman([email protected])
a dictionary of linguaphiles Glenn Glazer ([email protected])
a catch of jugglers Ann ([email protected])
a byte of programmers Dave Horsfall
an array of programmers Amod ([email protected])
a clique of computer mice Crystal Cutler
a portfolio of stock brokers Durgesh Rao
a stack of newspapermen Gary Belkin ([email protected])
an obfuscation of politicians Ed Paynter ([email protected])
a plurality of group nouns Subash Chandra K.V.
a matrix of mathematicians Shawn Griffith
a suite of chocolates Robert Tolmach
a passion of poets Khatru ([email protected])
an imelda of shoes Rita M. Markey
a sneer of Mac users DBgammon ([email protected])
a segregation of racists Hofmeyr ([email protected])
an intimidation of gargoyles Harry M. Kachline
a sum of accountants Austen Naughten
a counting of accountants Dean Kielpinski
a number of accountants Dan Olinger ([email protected])
a mass of priests Jim Zehr ([email protected])
a class of computer programmers Jim Watters
[a class of OOP programmers, to be more precise. -Anu]
an obfuscation of user manuals A. R. White ([email protected])
an enterprise of trekkies David Allen ([email protected])
a beam of trekkies Cynthia J Hernandez
a grab-bag of purse-snatchers Susan Williams ([email protected])
a 404 of former websites Larry Sherman
a of nihilists James S. Hawtree ([email protected])
a muddle of deans Michael Grant
an interference of mothers-in-law John Weston
a blather of chat-room participants Jeff Marx ([email protected])
a confusion of multi-disk CD players Robert Tolmach
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
an ear of colonels John Imhof ([email protected]),
Projeto Alcance
a duke of URLs Ric Bailey ([email protected])
a herd of hearing aids Robert Tolmach
a dissemblage of politicians Mike Trebing
a silence of lambs Fredrock ([email protected])
Ann Elise Smoot ([email protected]) 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 ([email protected]) 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
"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."