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| Vladimir Pustovit via Flickr |
I saw this picture in my Facebook feed a day or so ago:
I’d just posted a photo to Instagram with a colony of gulls in it. Whenever I post a picture with a group of animals, I wonder if there isn’t a name for it. And luckily, for word nerds like me, there is.
Here* are a few more:
A shrewdness of apes
A troop of baboons
An obstinancy of buffalo
An army of caterpillars
A glaring of cats
A mob of deer
A troubling of goldfish
An array of hedgehogs
A smuck of jellyfish
A kindle of kittens
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| Andy Rusch via Flickr |
A pandemonium of parrots
A crash of rhinoceros
A knot of toads
A descent of woodpeckers
A zeal of zebras
This made me wonder about humans. What is a group of humans called? Here^ are some collective nouns for certain groups:
A troupe of artists
A cohort of guests
An unhappiness of husbands
A damning of jurors
A superfluity of nuns
A misbelief of painters
A promise of tapsters [bartenders]
An impatience of wives
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| James Cridland via Flickr |
But what is the word for all humans put together? I think I know:
An infestation of humans
Too morbid for you? Okay, here, have a cookie:
An evolution of humans
Still, I imagine we are lacking in quite a number of collective nouns for various gatherings of humans. I propose the following:
A retch of racists
A vomit of homophobes
A smalldick of misogynists
A trump of villains
A shit of stupid people…
That turned dark very quickly. Perhaps I should search the internet for videos of kindles of kittens.
* from Collective Nouns for Animals
^from ADDucation