Thursday, August 20, 2009

A rhumba of rattlesnakes

New post up at the other blog on collective nouns but I thought I'd extract my favourites here:

The most biblical:

A plague of locusts

The descriptive:

A sneak of weasels
A bloat of hippopotami
A charm of goldfinches
A glint of goldfish
A cowardice of curs

The funny:

A rhumba of rattlesnakes(!) (Note: How funny is this one? My imagination just goes nuts. Why a "rhumba"? Just for the alliteration?)
A romp of otters (You know, because that's ALL otters do. They romp.)
An implausibility of gnu (Note:A comment on God's handiwork? The gnu is such a weird word and a odd animal too; but then I'd have thought the echidna or its related monotreme, the platypus would be more 'implausible' than the gnu.)
A mischief of mice
An intrusion of cockroaches (This one is just SO appropriate)

The poetic:

An ascension or exultation/exaltation of larks
A watch of nightingales
An aerie of hawks
A wake of buzzards
A convocation of eagles
A murmuration of starlings

The political:

A parliament of owls
A congress of baboons

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