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THE LOUNGE
The Lounge is the free-talk section of the Forum. You can post anything here about any topic outside English grammar and usage. Wide-ranging discussions and debates will be allowed in the Lounge subject only to the condition that the subjects are not unlawful, obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, and threatening. As in the Forum’s sections on English grammar and usage, we expect discussants to keep the Lounge a vibrant venue for relevant, healthy, and civilized discussions, not impertinent, angry, or violent ones.
So if you have any non-grammar thought or idea you’d like to share, make the Lounge the sounding board for it now! Let your fellow Forum members help you germinate the seed of that idea if it’s a good one—or terminate it if it turns out to be otherwise.
The wonder of all these anthropomorphic collective nouns!
Forum contributor Ben Sanchez wishes to share with us this delightful photo-essay about the nature of beasts and humankind. Enjoy!
Priceless.
The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals.
We are all familiar with a
Herd of Cows,
Flock of Chickens,
School of Fish,
A Gaggle of Geese, and
A Pride of Lions.
However, less widely known is
A Murder of Crows,
(as well as of their cousins the Rooks and Ravens),
An Exaltation of Doves,
And, presumably because they look so wise,
A Congress of Owls.
Now consider a group of Baboons.
They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates... And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?
Believe it or not…A Parliament,
Yep... A Parliament of Baboons!*
Pretty much explains everything, doesn’t it?
You just can’t make this up.
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*Editor’s note: This is the British version, of course. The Philippines has its own. Do you know what the collective anthropomorphic noun for them is? Do tell us your answer.
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