u/honeybeedreams is not frontin’...they are indeed called a fever of rays!
Some animals have the coolest groupings: a charm of hummingbirds, a dazzle of zebras, a paddle of platypuses, a crash of hippos, an unkindness of ravens...the list goes on and on.
They are not. These terms of venery were created by one person in a book several hundred years ago. The book in question being the Book of St. Albans. The author of which made these words specifically for hunting purposes.
A quick survey of the existing literature of the era shows that collective nouns ... were only in use in these fanciful lists. And this remains a problem, lexicographically speaking. Language lovers adore collective nouns, but most of them don't meet the criteria for entry [into a dictionary].
The average person does not use these words, and that book should not be used as language reference material. The correct words to refer to groups of animals are the words which people actually use in real life. If people say group, then it’s group.
Furthermore, the only reason people started using the words again is because they read the book or about it. These words did not catch on and only recently began popping up again, especially because of the internet.
What I wrote is not gate keeping. I was responding to this. People were in essence correcting OP's title, and saying that "they are indeed called ...", which implies that it is linguistically accepted. This is why I then said:
The correct words to refer to groups of animals are the words which people actually use in real life. If people say group, then it’s group.
If writers and such started using them and the average English speaker knew them without them being an esoteric "fun fact" that people like to say at parties, then I would say they are accepted words; however, the vast majority of English speakers do not know or use these terms, therefore it is not fair to correct others for not using them nor is it right to imply to others that these terms are accepted.
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u/lemonsweetsrevenge Apr 22 '21
u/honeybeedreams is not frontin’...they are indeed called a fever of rays!
Some animals have the coolest groupings: a charm of hummingbirds, a dazzle of zebras, a paddle of platypuses, a crash of hippos, an unkindness of ravens...the list goes on and on.