a crash of rhinos

[Jonathan Lighter]

Another esoteric group term for a kind of animal, absent from OED.  This one
actually seems to have some existence outside of novelty lists of such
terms.

GB supplies, from 1951 (semi-verified through WorldCat): "Are you short of
masters?" "We might easily have been. Two of our people have just had a
rather narrow escape. They were attacked by a crash of rhinoceroses, which
charged their headlights while they were out with the car one night."

There a good number of additional exx., most of all of them in those tedious
lists, most since 1977, a great many since 2000.

However, a 2007 episode of PBS's _Nature_  concerning the animals (it was
repeated this evening) contains the phrase, "a big group - fifteen adults -
a 'crash' of rhinos, as they call it."

JL


--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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