Group think

Columnist Peter Edgerton ponders the vast range of wonderful collective nouns that exist in the English language

Peter Edgerton

Malaga

Thursday, 17 April 2025, 14:32

When, as a small child, I heard for the first time that a group of lions is called a 'pride', I remember being bowled over by the beauty of the expression. Similarly, some years later, learning that a collection of crows is known as a 'murder' and a gathering of ravens is an 'unkindness' gave me an odd frisson of mild alarm mixed with a generous splash of wonder.

What I should have done at this point of course is investigated much further and discovered the vast range of wonderful collective nouns that exist in the English language. Alas, at such a tender age, the allure of Kevin Keegan football annuals was stronger than the pull of the local library and I let slip the opportunity to gather a profound field of specialist knowledge which surely would have impressed vast swathes of beautiful women at myriad parties down the years. Those women were, it has to be said, rather less impressed with my in-depth grasp of all 1975 first division football grounds and their corresponding crowd capacities. Thanks, Kevin.

Anyway, I was reminded of this youthful faux-pas recently, when I stumbled across the word which corresponds to a group of butterflies (you'll have to wait to the end to find out - no peeking). It's an exquisite description and it inspired me to look up a few more of the most impressive collective nouns our language has to offer. Here, then, are five beauties in no particular order: an ambush of tigers, a skulk of thieves, a kindle of kittens, a shrewdness of apes and, quite magnificently, a blessing of unicorns.

Needless to say, discovering such wonders inspires a man to have a crack at creating some of his own. So, here are another five - but totally made up this time, never much likely to trouble the scholars at the Oxford English Dictionary: a petulance of pop stars, a deceit of politicians, a bureaucracy of head teachers, an obsession of film directors and a hush of librarians.

This is a good game to play at home or on long car journeys in between the endless bickering and flavourless boiled sweets. What do you mean you've already started playing? What's that? A tedium of newspaper columnists, you say? How very rude.

Oh yes, I almost forgot - the collective noun for a group of butterflies? It's a kaleidoscope. Yes, a kaleidoscope of butterflies. How beautiful is that?

www.peteredgerton.com

Top 50

Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.

Reporta un error en esta noticia