2

enter image description here

While some of these are unquestionably used (a clowder of cats, a pack of dogs), many just surprise me. For example “a cackle of hyenas”, “a memory of elephants”... For the latter I found a confirming article, namely this one.

Edit: I realise the impracticality of going through each word in the list. That’s why I reworded to “any” almost immediately. I expected that native speakers would quickly recognise at least one construction, for instance “a cackle of hyenas”, as a hoax. Although I have been an avid reader of English prose for decades, I had no idea about the origins of venery and that it was actually meant to be funny!

Ludi
  • 731
  • Closely related: Are 'streak' and 'ambush' really the collective nouns for tigers?. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 07 '18 at 22:51
  • Related: Etymology of “a pride of lions” and A murder of crows? – Mari-Lou A Feb 07 '18 at 23:01
  • 4
    A large proportion of all terms of venery are "hoaxes" in that they were inventions of clever authors, not terms in common usage, e.g. an impatience of wives and an unhappiness of husbands. The Boke of Saint Albans and all that. – choster Feb 07 '18 at 23:02
  • @Mari-LouA - Do the supposed duplicates explain the meaning and usage of “cackle of hyenas”? – user 66974 Feb 07 '18 at 23:22
  • @user159691 the user gave that as one of two examples of a possible hoax. I also see an enormous list of collection nouns. What about you? What about checking a "wisdom of wombats" or a "bloat of hippos"? And.... the answer is that many of these terms were created for fun. It's in the answers posted. – Mari-Lou A Feb 07 '18 at 23:24
  • @Mari-LouA - that, toghether with “memory of elephants” is what the question is about. But, who cares. – user 66974 Feb 07 '18 at 23:25
  • 1
    @user159691 They are terms of venery, which means that they are quite likely to have been made up just to be a bit funny and act as linguistic curios and There is another piece of circumstantial evidence: terms of venery in English are often quite transparently meant to be amusing or exaggerated gibes at perceived characteristics of the animal in question. and It was lingual fun. The trend developed in the middle of the 15th century and one of the first such lists occurs in The Bokys of Haukyng ... better known as Boke of Seynt Albans or The Book of St. Albans printed 1486. – Mari-Lou A Feb 07 '18 at 23:28
  • 1
    @Mari-LouA that’s why I reworded the question to “any”. Obviously you are not supposed to check all of them. The hope was that one of them be identified as a hoax. – Ludi Feb 07 '18 at 23:45
  • The answer is more than one, and I wouldn't call them "hoaxes" they are terms created by just a bunch of English nuns (if I remember correctly) playing around with words. Better to call them jokes and word association games. – Mari-Lou A Feb 07 '18 at 23:48
  • @Ludi - it is an interesting question, only apparently a duplicate. You could fix it asking about a few specific usages like hyena etc. referring to the past questions for the general nature of the terms of venery. – user 66974 Feb 08 '18 at 07:26
  • @user159691 thank you! Of what exactly is it a duplication? I only saw the questions about streak, ambush, pride and murder. These being legitimate does not imply none of the above are hoaxes - although the answers teach us the essentials of venery. Perhaps I should edit to “contemporary hoaxes”? – Ludi Feb 08 '18 at 08:54
  • 2
    A grumble of grammarians grimace. – Ross Murray Feb 08 '18 at 18:10

1 Answers1

1

It appears that the following g terms are actually used, known as “terms of venery”

As for cackle, the following extract from Quora comments:

There is also a poetic term, 'a cackle of hyenas', but this is very rarely used, much like 'a dazzle of zebras' - no zoologist would use these terms. They would say 'a clan of hyenas' and 'a herd of zebras'.

Memory of Elephants

user 66974
  • 67,349