by beatriceotto | Mar 6, 2019 | collective nouns, put in a good word
A perfect collective noun for a mass of marvels. There are good reasons the first of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s duo of travel books is entitled A Time of Gifts.One of the most beautifully wrought recollections of a youthful stride across Europe, also capturing...
by beatriceotto | Feb 27, 2019 | collective nouns, put in a good word
A poetic collective noun, evoking the soothing cooing of the birds of peace, one of the gentlest sounds in nature (or...
by beatriceotto | Feb 20, 2019 | collective nouns, put in a good word
So now, when you are reporting from a medical conference, you know the correct term to package all those medics together. They are huddling and expostulating as a ‘doctrine’. Perhaps the collective noun refers, however, as much or more to doctors of the...
by beatriceotto | Jan 30, 2019 | collective nouns, put in a good word
What did cobblers do to be nailed with such a bad reputation? When did you ever see a drunken cobbler? Surely they should cobble together a class action, and hobble such aspersions on their profession, particularly given the favourable light cast on any gathering of...
by beatriceotto | Jan 23, 2019 | collective nouns, put in a good word
Having recently revelled in the bursting descriptions of a quaffing, boozing, drunken chef in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan, I was surprised to see the collective noun for the profession of cook being ‘temperance’. Perhaps Swelter is the exception...
by beatriceotto | Jul 5, 2017 | collective nouns
As I’ve never seen a chough, knowingly, I don’t know what they chatter...
by beatriceotto | Jul 5, 2017 | collective nouns
‘Army’ makes sense when you hear of trains of spiny, poisonous caterpillars marching like a locomotive across the southern landscapes of...
by beatriceotto | Jul 5, 2017 | collective nouns
Never heard a bullfinch, so I don’t know if they bellow, but it isn’t an easy word to associate with a...
by beatriceotto | Jul 5, 2017 | collective nouns
‘Peep’ is for chicks, surely, but when they grow up, it doesn’t quite work. How about instead: a haggle of hens, a pecking of chickens or a brooding or clucking of either … the latter evoking that contented, almost purring sound hens make when...
