The English language is charming ... and difficult to learn. Not only does English have a large general vocabulary, there are just some weird words which nobody really uses but are in the dictionary nonetheless.
This morning, I’m thinking specifically of collective nouns for groups of animals. Most native speakers of English know that cattle come in “herds,” for example, or that dogs group in “packs” or birds in “flocks.” However, there are more specific terms for groups of specific animals. Everyone knows that lions gather in “prides,” for instance. What about tigers?
When I started wondering about the collective noun for a group of tigers (not that it comes up a lot in my everyday life or anything), I went to the only source that might answer such an arcane question —the internet. After a few minutes of looking about, I found that tigers gathered together in a group are called either an “ambush” or a “streak,” depending on the source. The most common given term is “ambush.” Why? That’s the problem with the internet. It usually doesn’t give the “why.”
Erika Berlin, writing for Mental Floss magazine on July 26, 2018, gives a nice opinion on why it’s an ambush of tigers: “Since tigers tend to be solitary creatures, a grouping of them would certainly feel like an ambush.” Delightful, but she cites no sources. When I tried to confirm either term in the Oxford English Dictionary, I found no citation for either “ambush” or “streak.” However, I like Berlin’s “why” for an ambush of tigers, and “streak” is sort of commonsense, considering a tiger’s stripes, so I’m going to let that one go right there.
In fact, without a specialized reference book in my personal library, I’m going to have to let the “why” of a lot of these terms go, for now. This little research project tempts me into a huge waste of time, so I jumped straight to Wikipedia for help. Wiki is somewhat shaky academically, but it usually cites its sources, after a fashion.
So, an ambush (or streak) of tigers. What about other big cats? Wiki has a handy page of collective nouns for animals. A group of jaguars is a “prowl” or a “leap.” That just makes sense, so I didn’t look too much further. Well, okay, I did —several websites have a “shadow” of jaguars, which is just too perfect to ruin with further research.
Then I started thinking of domestic cats —just plain old kitty cats. Wow, that’s a can of worms! Y’all know I had to look —it’s a “bed” or a “bunch” or a “clat” or a “clew” of worms, but not a “can.” Anyway —a bunch of cats are a “clowder” or a “glaring,” neither outright confirmed by the Oxford English Dictionary. Nor does it confirm a “destruction” of feral cats, but oh, is that cool!
The OED had only implied confirmations of some of those words for worms, too, so I’m not sure how helpful “The definitive record of the English language” (as they advertise themselves) is going to be here. By “implied,” I mean that I can see why some of these collective nouns have been applied to specific animals, but the OED just doesn’t specifically say that a “clat” is a group of worms. At any rate, I’d probably say a “bunch” of worms, were I to need a word for a bunch of worms. Frankly, though, I like “can” of worms better.
Despite near-heroic efforts, I may just get tempted into that huge waste of time here. Solvable mysteries vex me. The Wiki page alone is a huge list of apparently solvable mysteries, if I just research enough. I may have to email Erika Berlin; she seems to have it going on. All the other websites give the collective name or names —say, either a “scurry” or a “dray” of squirrels —but only Berlin gives any level of specificity. For squirrels, she says, “Scurries are fairly unusual since squirrels are not pack animals by nature, so the more commonly used dray refers to a nest consisting of a mother squirrel and her young.” That’s the stuff!
Oh, no —I’m hooked. I told myself that I’d just look around on the internet for 30 MINUTES before I started writing; now, I can’t stop. I wonder if Amazon has books on this subject. Rats! (Colony, horde, mischief, plague, swarm!) Now, two books on collective names are coming to my house —one on animals and one on birds.
I wonder if Berlin has anything on birds. Hmm. A “scold” of jays, a “charm” of hummingbirds, a “parliament” of owls. Wow! Three different collective nouns for vultures, depending on what the vultures are doing! “Unkindness” of ravens, oh my!
Okay, I’m chasing rabbits now —a warren, a colony, a bury, a trace, a trip of rabbits. The internet has just too many collective nouns for rabbits. Why is that?
I’ll have to get back to y’all ... the sun is coming up, so I have to go to work.
David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. The opinions reflected are his own.
