A new collective noun: "astonishment"

[Bill Palmer]

or, "a shrewdness of apes",etc...ad infinitum

Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: A new collective noun: "astonishment"


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> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A new collective noun: "astonishment"
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>
> 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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>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
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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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