collective nouns (Something I like)

Collective nouns are all those special words that we use for groups of specific things.  These include everything from a murder of crows to a load of laundry.  I like these because they basically make the english language much more complicated, but also more poetic and wondrous.

Some of them are easy to forget as special, a deck of cards, a fleet of ships, and a forest of trees are so common that you can forget about them.   A murder of crows, a pride of lions, and a gaggle of geese are more recognizable.

There’s some controversy whether a murder of crows was really ever used or if it was just invented placed into the language.  Part of the magic of collective nouns in the english language is that there is some leeway on what you can just invent, as long it makes sense in some way.

So, i’m going to invent a few of my own, feel free to add your own.

A disaster of politicians

A lyric of poets

A triumph of awards

Words that annoy me more than they should: coed

Why do we need this word anymore?  Why do I still see it occasionally in news articles or plot descriptions?  i.e. “Sally was a young coed who had no idea the political intrigue that awaited her during the summer”

Co-ed is an abbreviation for Co-educational, referring to a female student going to a school with both female and male students, from the 19th century.  “Girls and boys going to school? Together? What kind of world are we living in?  Why, we must have have a special term for this most egregious exceptional event,” the blogger said sarcastically.

Shouldn’t we have a special word for all the dozens of young ladies that attend female only schools?  Wouldn’t that be a more more uncommon occurrence that necessitates extra adjectives?

So, the next time you see the word ‘coed’ in anything written written after 1950, I want you to find the author, throw the book, article, or internet at him and yell, “You wasted my time with anachronistic descriptions!  And I’m not gonna take it anymore!”