A dole of doves - new cite for 'obsolete' word (OED)

[Damien Hall]

A CNN article on the high murder rates in Philadelphia contains the new-to-me phrase 'a dole of doves':

'At a recent prayer vigil, Lizasuain "Mota" DeJesus released a dole of doves in memory of the slain store clerk, whom she knew from her regular visits to the corner store.'

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/11/us/philadelphia-violence/index.html

It's not a new phrase, of course, but I thought it worth noting because the OED has it only as an 'obscure' word:

_dole_ n.(2), sense 7: ' †7. A fanciful term for a company of doves.  [ < their mournful cooing.] Obs.

The cite there is from 1486.  This sense isn't in online MW at all.

Google has about 12,400 hits for 'dole of doves'. Many on the front page seem to be in lists of uncommonly-heard collective nouns for things, alongside 'a culture of bacteria', 'a deceit of lapwings' and such.

One more for the archives?

Damien

--

Damien Hall

University of Kent (UK)
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, 'Towards a New Linguistic Atlas of France'

English Language and Linguistics, School of European Culture and Languages

Please think about coming to our conference, and tell people about it! Sat 5 May 2012:
www.facebook.com/ELL.conference.2012

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org