82 utenti della rete avevano questa curiosità: Spiegami: What is the origin of all those very specific collective nouns, like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls?
Spiegami: What is the origin of all those very specific collective nouns, like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls?
Ed ecco le risposte:
There’s a book: An Exaltation of Larks, which covers all this. I last read it in HS, back before 1960, so I don’t recall too much from it.
It covers both traditional venereal terms, like and exultation of larks, as well as newer ones, such as an harrumph of professors emeriti.
I’m pretty sure it’s correct to refer to any group of animals as a “pack”/”herd”/”flock”/etc (depending on whether they’re a group of predators, prey, birds, etc.) and that the specific collective nouns are merely optional for funsies.
Some bored rich people back in the 16th century made them up. They thought it would be more fun that way.
Modern English is a blend of languages from all over the world, but especially northern Europe, French, Germanic, Norse and the different people in England. So there is no universal answer. But often the answer came from farmers or hunters.