A new collective noun: "astonishment"

Sat Dec 19 03:53:48 UTC 2009

I believe that many or most of these (and more) are, essentially, BS.

All were boosted in a coffee-table book called _An Exaltation of Larks, or
The Venereal Game_ (get it?), 1968.  The author, James Lipton, put out a
much expanded edition in 1993 - expanded, as he admits, by his own
imagination and those of clever correspondents.

Search the OED for the terms there listed and you will find few that have
been in actual use, though a surprising number appear in Renaissance word
lists (and nowhere else before the 20th C.).

To take one popular ex., the OED notes under "murder" (of crows),
"One of many alleged group names found in late Middle English glossarial
sources. App. revived in the 20th cent."

Of those listed in OED, many are described as "alleged."

"Clowder" of cats and "bale" of turtles, now wildly popular in certain
circles, seem not to be in OED at all.

C. E. Hare, in a book pub'd in 1939, seems to be responsible for the
reintroduction and promotion, among "word-lovers," of many such colorful
terms.

JL

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: A new collective noun: "astonishment"
>
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>
> At 9:08 PM -0500 12/18/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
> >or, "a shrewdness of apes",etc...ad infinitum
> >
> >Bill Palmer
>
> Not to (hereby) mention "an exaltation of larks" and "a murder of crows".
>
> LH
>
> >----- 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"
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>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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> >>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>Subject:      Re: A new collective noun: "astonishment"
>
> >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>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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> >
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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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