Friday, December 10, 2010

An implausibility of gnus

I found my new favorite website today. It features collective nouns.

An implausibility of gnus.



Most of the evocative collective nouns seem to center on birds:

  • An ostentation or pulchritude of peacocks,
  • An unkindness of ravens,
  • A wake of buzzards,
  • A mustering of storks (no doubt, come to reclaim the babies),
  • A murder of crows,
  • An enchantment of nightingales,
  • A parliament of owls, and
  • A committee of vultures.

But there are some other winners:
  • A bloat of hippopotami,
  • A stud of mares,
  • An intrigue of kittens,
  • A shrewdness of apes, and
  • (my personal favorite) An implausibility of gnus.

But I think they forgot some of the more recent collectives to enter the modern lexicon:
  • A niggling of bedbugs (and responsibilities),
  • A grandiloquence of hipsters, and
  • A privation of recent college graduates.

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