Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A Spangle of Cheerleaders

I've always been fascinated by the poetic names we give groups of animals. Terms like a School of Fish or a Herd of Cattle are pretty common, but what about a Murder of Crows? Or a Parliament of Owls? A Shrewdness of Apes?

The attachment of Shrewdness or Murder seems random, but somehow conveys a familiar quality to whatever species it describes. A Sugar of Crows or a Dalliance of Apes doesn't feel right.

Why don't we classify humans in this way - by job, or age, or social placement? I've taken the liberty of making up a few.

A Cosine of Architects
A Fickle of Actors
A Pod of Douchebags
A Thrall of Gamers
A Tyranny of Eighth Graders
A Straggle of Senators
A Fidget of Toddlers
A Crime of Lawyers
A Fuss of Bridesmaids
A Fetor of Paparazzi
A Squall Day Traders
A Canister of Garbage Men
A Guile of Advertisers
A Stew of Psychiatrists
A Thicket of Priests
A Crush of Teachers
Please feel free to use them in a sentence and spread them around. Or, if you are so inclined, make up some of your own! Add them here!

3 comments:

Joe Janes said...

Great list. All have been added to my lexicon.

As well as...

A Flatulence of Bloggers
A Desperation of Improvisers
A Marinade of Hipsters

joe g said...

At the Goodman a few years ago we came up with "A Confidence of Techies."

Not to break our arms patting ourselves on the back or nothin'.

imind: very much if you smoke.

regan said...

I actually saw this same topic a couple of days ago - someone had culled a bunch from twitter i believe. My favorite of those culled was "A ______ of mimes"

http://all-sorts.org/popular/card

 
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