A new collective noun: "astonishment"

[Wilson Gray]

Or "a pride of lions," etc.

-Wilson

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A new collective noun: "astonishment"
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>
> Google immediately shows "an astonishment of valentines" and "an
> astonishment of poets."
>
> GB has "She scorched him, too, with an astonishment of fires" from 1990.
>
> I'm pretty sure I read it before then, but solely as a literary metaphor.
>
> (Cf., of course, "an astonishment of riches").
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      A new collective noun: "astonishment"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  From the New York Times review of James Cameron's "Avatar", Dec. 18,
>> by Manola Dargis:
>>
>> "The exotic creatures in 'Avatar,' which include an astonishment of
>> undulating, flying, twitching and galloping organisms,** don't just
>> crawl through the underbrush; they thunder and shriek, yip and hiss,
>> pointy teeth gleaming.
>>
>> An astonishment of Pandorans.*
>>     An "astonishment" can include more than just Na'vi, since
>> Dargis's next sentence is "The most important of these are the Na'vi
>> ...".***
>>
>> * There seems to be a battle between "Pandorans" and "Pandorians", at
>> present about 3:1 for "Pandorans".  I can't get far enough into the
>> "Official Web Site" (avatarmovie.com) to pass the movie bits and
>> reach text to confirm official usage.
>>
>> ** I'm somehow reminded of the recent NYTimes review of Humperdinck's
>> "Hansel and Gretel" at the Met -- describing it as a opera for
>> children about "hunger, kidnapping, cannibalism and witch burning."
>>
>> *** I note the classical plural, gender-free (a la "alumni" in
>> popular usage).  But the singular seems to be Na'vi also, at least in
>> Dargis's review (Jake operates a "10-foot, blue-skinned Na'vi body.")
>>
>>      But how does Dargis get away without musing on the analogy with
>> Pandora's box?  Or would that be a spoiler?  I haven't seen the film,
>> of course; but Dargis writes "Although 'Avatar' delivers a late kick
>> to the gut that might be seen as nihilistic (and how!), it is
>> strangely utopian."  Pandora's box is (its mines are?) opened, and
>> evils are let out into its world?
>>
>> Joel
>>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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