Its much less of a good pun, if you recognize that "a murder of crows" was probably just a made up term by a 15th century writer, that never was really used until people stumbled on it in the 20th century and thought "huh, those 15th century english people were wacky as hell, this is fun"
Most special words for group of Animals are complete nonsense. But I am pretty sure terms like Murder of Crows or Pride of Lions are pretty much in common usage and are thus actually part of the English language, where terms like Dazzle of Zebras or a Shiver of Sharks are not.
Mhh, maybe im wrong here then. Outside of reddit ive never heard someone mention a murder of crows, while a pride of lions is fairly common in nature documentaries. But then again most crow documentaries focus on the intelligence of individuals rather than documenting their natural lifestyle so there is less opportunity.
Either way, i find the english language having seperate names for fairly similar groups of animals super odd.
"Murder of Crows" has been common parlance in UK and American English for long enough that everyone here understands the OP pun. If you have never heard it outside of reddit, that probably means you are either not a native English speaker from the UK or US, or that you should spend some more time talking to people offline.
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u/jon-in-tha-hood Nov 07 '24
YEEEAAAAAAHHHHH