Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Names of Animal Groups

Starting point is 00:00:00 The English language is weird. We have words that are spelled the same but sound different, and we have words that are spelled differently but sound the same. We have some words that sound nothing like how they're spelled, and a host of exceptions that you just kind of have to know and remember. And then for some reason, we have totally different arbitrary words for different groups of animals. In fact, we have a lot of those words. Learn more about the words we have for groups of animals and why they exist.

Starting point is 00:00:30 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Did you ever hear about the selfie that solved a murder or the jury that used a Ouija board to speak to a victim? If that made you pause, you need to listen to Morning Cup of Murder. I'm Karina B. Minas Durfer, and every single day on Morning Cup of Murder, I tell one chilling true crime story tied to that exact day in history. With over 2,500 episodes to binge, you'll never run out of dark stories to start your morning with. Go listen to Morning Cup of Murder wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:01:14 And remember, stay safe. I'm sure that most of you have realized that the English language has a lot of different words for groups of animals. In fact, each animal seems to have its own word for a group of them. Some of those you might be familiar with, but there's a good chance you probably haven't heard even a fraction of the collective nouns that are associated with different species of animals. The ones you're probably familiar with include a pride of lions, a pack of wolves, a giggle of geese, a pot of whales, a murder of crows, and a brood of chickens. And of course, the name that was very popular in the 1980s, a flock of seagulls. However, this is barely scratching the surface of the words that exist.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Birds have an enormous number of words when you'd think that just the word flock would suffice for everything. Here is just a partial list of the collective nouns that are available for birds. And please stick with me to the end. A convocation of eagles, a bellowing of bullfinches, a siege of bitterns, a sedge of cranes, a herd of curlews, a giggle of geese only if they are on land, a skein of geese if they are in flight, a spring of teals, a paddling of ducks if they are on the water, a bunch of ducks if they are in flight. A plump of wild fowl.

Starting point is 00:02:42 A bevy of quail, an exaltation of larks, a watch of nightingales, a nigh of pheasants, a covey of partridge, a dole of doves, a pitying of turtle doves, a mermaition of starlings, an ostentation of peacocks, a parliament of owls, a deceit of lapwings, a fall of woodcocks, a host of sparrows, a charm of goldfinches, a congregation of plovers, a flight of swallows, a building of rooks, a conspiracy of ravens, a cast of hawks, and a rafter of turkeys. Now, there are more, but this is a daily podcast and I have time limits. More importantly, I want to get to other types of animals. Mammals have a host of these collective nouns as well, and these include

Starting point is 00:03:33 A leap of leopards, a sleuth of bears, a sounder of swine, a crash of rhinoceruses, a singular of boars, a trip of hares, a drove of cattle, a mob of kangaroos, a shrewdness of apes, a labor of moles, a skulk of foxes, an embarrassment of pandas, a seat of badgers, a clouter of cats, a kindle of kittens, a destruction of wildcats, a pace of asses, a business of ferrets, a horde of gerbils, a tower of giraffes, a gaze of raccoons, a raft of otters, and a barrel of monkeys. So there are tons of words for groups of birds and mammals. But what about other types of animals? Well, there aren't nearly as many for, say, reptiles or amphibians. A knot of toads, a nest of vipers, a pit of snakes, a chorus of frogs, a bale of turtles, and a creep of tortoises.

Starting point is 00:04:40 Fish also don't have as many collective nouns. In addition to the generic school of fish, there are a hover of trout, a shoal of bass, a shoal of herrings, a run of salmon, a swarm of eels, and a draft of fish if they are caught in a net. And lest you think that this episode is going to be nothing more than a long list of words, let me do one last one with insects and arachnids. A bike of bees, a colony of ants, a cloud of grasshoppers, a plague of locust, a scourge of mosquitoes, a flutter of butterflies, a rabble of gnats, a scourge of flies, and a cluster of spiders. The list of words that I just provided is far from exhaustive, and to make things even worse,

Starting point is 00:05:29 many of the words used for particular animals are not unique. There are often multiple words that are used to describe a group of the same animal. For example, in addition to a ostentation of peacocks, it is sometimes called a pride of peacocks or a muster of peacocks. And peacocks aren't the only animal. Horses can be in a herd, but they can also be called a stud, a team, a Harris or a string. And there are many, many more examples, and perhaps you've heard of alternate words to describe some of the animals that I've just listed. So why do we do this? Why don't we just

Starting point is 00:06:06 use a small number of words to describe animal groups more generally? Certainly, herd, school, flock, and swarm might cover most of the cases that we can think of. Other languages don't have this many words to describe groups of animals. Well, it turns out that there is a reason for the madness. It isn't necessarily a good reason, but it's a reason. It also explains why there are more words for groups of birds and mammals than there are for reptiles and fish. And it goes back to 15th century England. During this period, English aristocratic culture was heavily influenced by hunting. This is why there are more words for mammals and birds and there are for reptiles and insects. It all had to do with hunting. Hunting was usually forbidden to lower-class people. They were allowed to hunt small

Starting point is 00:06:56 game like rabbits and hares, but it was illegal for them to hunt larger, more desirable games such as deer. These animals were considered the property of the king, and killing them would make you guilty of poaching. Hunting became a highly ritualized social activity amongst the nobility and educated classes. Going on a hunt would be an event that often involved dozens of people who came along in a support role. One of the things that elites do in every society is adopt language that separates them from the common rabble. Consider how in My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle initially struggled to fit into upper-class society due to her speech. The use of elite language and hunting as an aristocratic activity were jointly responsible for the development of so many words to describe

Starting point is 00:07:42 groups of animals. These collective terms served as a kind of verbal badge of sophistication. Knowing that a group of lions was called a pride or that crows gathered in a murder demonstrated your education and social standing. There was also a practical element. Different human activities such as farming, hunting, and science created different needs for precision in animal terminology. Farmers needed to distinguish between different grouping behaviors of livestock for practical management reasons. Hunters required terminology that reflected the strategic challenges for pursuing different species. Our knowledge of most of these words has been passed down to us from a single 15th century book, The Book of St. Albans, published in 1486. The book was actually

Starting point is 00:08:33 one of the earliest books ever published on a printing press in England. The book of St. Albans was a compendium on the pursuits expected of gentlemen, such as hawking, hunting, and heraldry. It was produced at the St. Albans Press by the anonymous author called Schoolmaster Printer. It traditionally has been attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, a priorist linked with the Sopwell nunnery, but it was most probably a compilation from earlier French and English works. It was written to instruct the aristocracy in the proper knowledge of noble pastimes, both as a practical manual and as a display of refinement. The hunting section included the long list of collective nouns for animals and people,

Starting point is 00:09:15 partially serious and partially witty social wordplay. The original term used for the words was terms of venery, venery being an archaic word that referred to hunting. The book quickly became popular and was reprinted in 1496 with an added section on angling. Its fame endured because of the striking heraldic illustration and the entertaining lists of terms of venery, many of which entered the English language as curiosities. So most of the crazy words that we have for groups of animals

Starting point is 00:09:47 can actually be traced back to this single book published in 1486. But wait, there's more. Most of these words fell into disuse just a few decades after the book was published. For centuries, there was little to no mention of most of the collective animal nouns in literature. Then, in the 19th century, for reasons we're not totally sure, there was a resurgence in these collective animal nouns. Some of them, like a pride of lions or a murder of crows, stuck and remained part of the popular English vocabulary. The vast majority of them, however, remained obscure. There's something else I haven't mentioned, and maybe some of you have thought of it. It wasn't

Starting point is 00:10:29 until after the 19th century resurgence that many words were developed for animals that people in medieval England would never have been aware of. They had no clue what kangaroos, pandas, or raccoons were. All of the collective nouns for animals that are found in the new world were developed independently from the 19th century onward. And there's one type of animal I haven't yet mentioned, that the book of St. Albans also has words for, humans. The book provides collective nouns for various types of people who are important to medieval society. These include, A state of princes, a draft of butlers, a drunkenness of cobblers, an eloquence of lawyers, a superfluity of nuns, a poverty of pipers, an untruth of summoners, these are the people

Starting point is 00:11:19 who summon people to church courts, a disguising of tailors, an observance of friars, a sentence of judges, a lying of partners, a doctrine of doctors, an abominable sight of monks, a blast of hunters, and a diligence of messengers. And at this point, I started thinking, if the medieval world had words to describe its society, perhaps we need similar terms to describe the 21st century. And if a single book, likely written by a single author, can create so many of these words that we use today,

Starting point is 00:11:53 why can't someone just do that right now? And why can't that someone be me? So ladies and gentlemen, I humbly present to you some of the new collective nouns for people in the 21st century. A lag of network administrators, a download of podcasters, a couch of gamers, an annoyance of influencers, a binge of Netflix viewers, an eye roll of smartphone users, a cringe of reality stars, a hustle of entrepreneurs, a lemon of car salespeople, a bug of programmers, a face palm of flat earthers, an empty suit of politicians, a thread of commenters, and a complaint of online

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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Names of Animal Groups

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