1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,120 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, have you ever heard of a group 3 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: of ferrets called a business of ferrets? Or a collection 4 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: of jellyfish referred to as a smack of jellyfish? What 5 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: about a shrewdness of apes? We use collective nouns, also 6 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: known as nouns of assemblage to describe all sorts of groups. 7 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: Hosts of angels, bands of men, and shocks of corn 8 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: are commonly heard these days, but the nouns associated with 9 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: particular groupings of animals can get weird fast because words 10 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 1: and their uses are invented by people. When we see 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,479 Speaker 1: a bunch of a specific construction, you can bet on 12 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: it being the result of a language fad, And sure enough, 13 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: five hundred years ago, nouns of assemblage were all the rage. 14 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: We spoke via email with Magdalene Jacobs, a pH d 15 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: candidate in the Vanderbilt University Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. 16 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 1: She said, these are generally terms that came about from 17 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: upper class hunting culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 18 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,639 Speaker 1: They're called terms of venery, and they're linked to Norman 19 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: culture and influence and the idea of proper hunting language. 20 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,559 Speaker 1: Over a hundred and sixty terms of venery are listed 21 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: in the Book of St Alban's, a wildly popular at 22 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: the time manner's guide published in fourteen eighty six that 23 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: coached the medieval gentleman through having conversations about hunting, falconry, fishing, sports, 24 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: and heraldry without embarrassing himself at dinner parties. These collective 25 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: nouns are found in a chapter entitled the Companies of 26 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: Beasts and Fowls, though some of the terms referred to 27 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: people rather than animals. A bit of a joke, the 28 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,039 Speaker 1: Book of Saint Alban's not only described as sleuth of 29 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: bears and a skulk of foxes, but also linked women 30 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: to geese in the collective consciousness by labeling collections of 31 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 1: both gaggles. According to Jacobs, this is partially because there 32 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: is a direct linguistic link from the word gaggle to 33 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: the Middle English word for cackle. A collection of wives 34 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: was labeled and impatience a group of writers, on the 35 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: other hand, was called a ship. If language tells us 36 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: how to think about the world, we can see the 37 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:09,239 Speaker 1: fifteenth century European gentlemen's social priorities, though, of course, because 38 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: you can't keep the kids from making up slang. Once 39 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,399 Speaker 1: the construction was introduced in the Book of St Alban's, 40 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:18,359 Speaker 1: people started coining their own nouns of assemblage. Although a 41 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: lot of these terms slipped into obscurity in the sixteenth century, 42 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: like much of the lingo we generate on a continual basis, 43 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 1: some of them were adopted into common speech. These days. 44 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: We don't often have occasion to talk about a sneer 45 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,640 Speaker 1: of butlers or a misbelief of portrait painters, But whoever 46 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: came up with a staff of employees, a congregation of churchgoers, 47 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,639 Speaker 1: or a panel of judges should congratulate themselves on a 48 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: job well done. Linguistically speaking, much of the time, the 49 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: correct term for a group of anything lets us know 50 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,519 Speaker 1: our collective views on the disposition of whatever we're naming. 51 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,360 Speaker 1: Some of the most evocative terms of venery can be 52 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: found in birds the Book of St Alban's lists and 53 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: unkindness of ravens and a murder of crows definitely creepy negatives, 54 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: but a charm of finches adorable. Whoever first referred to 55 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: a college of cardinals was probably suggesting they thought the 56 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,639 Speaker 1: group of little red birds looked like a meeting of academics. 57 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:13,920 Speaker 1: But why a group of storks is called a mustering 58 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 1: is a little less clear. C. S. Lewis coined the 59 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:20,480 Speaker 1: term parliament of owls in his children's book series The 60 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: Chronicles of Narnia, a nod to Chaucer's poem A Parliament 61 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: of Fowls. The term is now recognized in dictionaries as 62 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: being the correct term for a group of owls. There 63 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: are meanwhile, few nouns of assemblage for insects mentioned in 64 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: the Book of Saint Albans. We still refer to a 65 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: swarm of bees, which was recorded in the book, but 66 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: we don't talk as much about a business of flies 67 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: or a flock of lice. If you've ever heard of 68 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:46,960 Speaker 1: a kindle of kittens, that comes from the Middle English 69 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: word kindle in which meant to give birth or produce 70 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: a litter, which was originally used only for puppies, but 71 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: is now commonly used for all kinds baby animals. A 72 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: group of adult cats might be a glaring or a pounce, 73 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: but a crowd of feral hats is a destruction. Anyone 74 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: concerned about the decline of migrating songbirds can understand why 75 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: that might be. Dogs, which were as much a man's 76 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: best friend in the Middle Ages as today, got a 77 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 1: lot of play. In the Book of Saint Alban's, hunting 78 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,359 Speaker 1: hounds alone got several group titles a cry, a mute, 79 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: a pack, and a kennel. Some of the most inventive 80 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: terms of venery are applied to wild animals, and Jacob 81 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: said because they began as hunting terms. The original names 82 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: from the Book of Saint Alban's reflected a specific societal 83 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: disposition towards the animal being hunted. A pride of lions 84 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: is a good example. Others that came later, such as 85 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: a wisdom of wombats, may be inaccurate, as wombats are 86 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,279 Speaker 1: rather solitary and don't spend time in groups. Others likely 87 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 1: referred to qualities of the animals themselves. A business of 88 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: ferrets came from a business of ferrets, which makes more 89 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:53,960 Speaker 1: sense than business if you've spent any time at all 90 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:58,720 Speaker 1: watching ferrets. These days, folks continue to make up new 91 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: nouns of assemblage and bring back old ones. Thus we 92 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: can talk about a prickle of hedgehogs, an obstinacy of Buffalo, 93 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: a bloat of hippos, and a game of whales regardless 94 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: of whether we're planning on hunting them or not. Today's 95 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler 96 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: Clang for iHeart Media and how Stuff Works. For more 97 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:23,920 Speaker 1: on this and a wonder of other topics, visit our 98 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: home planet, how stuff works dot com.