WEBVTT - Why a Gaggle of Geese? Where Do Collective Nouns Come From?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, have you ever heard of a group

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<v Speaker 1>of ferrets called a business of ferrets? Or a collection

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<v Speaker 1>of jellyfish referred to as a smack of jellyfish? What

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<v Speaker 1>about a shrewdness of apes? We use collective nouns, also

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<v Speaker 1>known as nouns of assemblage to describe all sorts of groups.

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<v Speaker 1>Hosts of angels, bands of men, and shocks of corn

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<v Speaker 1>are commonly heard these days, but the nouns associated with

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<v Speaker 1>particular groupings of animals can get weird fast because words

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<v Speaker 1>and their uses are invented by people. When we see

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<v Speaker 1>a bunch of a specific construction, you can bet on

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<v Speaker 1>it being the result of a language fad, And sure enough,

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred years ago, nouns of assemblage were all the rage.

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<v Speaker 1>We spoke via email with Magdalene Jacobs, a pH d

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<v Speaker 1>candidate in the Vanderbilt University Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences.

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<v Speaker 1>She said, these are generally terms that came about from

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<v Speaker 1>upper class hunting culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

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<v Speaker 1>They're called terms of venery, and they're linked to Norman

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<v Speaker 1>culture and influence and the idea of proper hunting language.

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<v Speaker 1>Over a hundred and sixty terms of venery are listed

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<v Speaker 1>in the Book of St Alban's, a wildly popular at

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<v Speaker 1>the time manner's guide published in fourteen eighty six that

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<v Speaker 1>coached the medieval gentleman through having conversations about hunting, falconry, fishing, sports,

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<v Speaker 1>and heraldry without embarrassing himself at dinner parties. These collective

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<v Speaker 1>nouns are found in a chapter entitled the Companies of

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<v Speaker 1>Beasts and Fowls, though some of the terms referred to

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<v Speaker 1>people rather than animals. A bit of a joke, the

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<v Speaker 1>Book of Saint Alban's not only described as sleuth of

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<v Speaker 1>bears and a skulk of foxes, but also linked women

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<v Speaker 1>to geese in the collective consciousness by labeling collections of

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<v Speaker 1>both gaggles. According to Jacobs, this is partially because there

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<v Speaker 1>is a direct linguistic link from the word gaggle to

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<v Speaker 1>the Middle English word for cackle. A collection of wives

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<v Speaker 1>was labeled and impatience a group of writers, on the

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<v Speaker 1>other hand, was called a ship. If language tells us

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<v Speaker 1>how to think about the world, we can see the

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<v Speaker 1>fifteenth century European gentlemen's social priorities, though, of course, because

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<v Speaker 1>you can't keep the kids from making up slang. Once

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<v Speaker 1>the construction was introduced in the Book of St Alban's,

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<v Speaker 1>people started coining their own nouns of assemblage. Although a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of these terms slipped into obscurity in the sixteenth century,

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<v Speaker 1>like much of the lingo we generate on a continual basis,

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<v Speaker 1>some of them were adopted into common speech. These days.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't often have occasion to talk about a sneer

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<v Speaker 1>of butlers or a misbelief of portrait painters, But whoever

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<v Speaker 1>came up with a staff of employees, a congregation of churchgoers,

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<v Speaker 1>or a panel of judges should congratulate themselves on a

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<v Speaker 1>job well done. Linguistically speaking, much of the time, the

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<v Speaker 1>correct term for a group of anything lets us know

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<v Speaker 1>our collective views on the disposition of whatever we're naming.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of the most evocative terms of venery can be

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<v Speaker 1>found in birds the Book of St Alban's lists and

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<v Speaker 1>unkindness of ravens and a murder of crows definitely creepy negatives,

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<v Speaker 1>but a charm of finches adorable. Whoever first referred to

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<v Speaker 1>a college of cardinals was probably suggesting they thought the

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<v Speaker 1>group of little red birds looked like a meeting of academics.

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<v Speaker 1>But why a group of storks is called a mustering

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<v Speaker 1>is a little less clear. C. S. Lewis coined the

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<v Speaker 1>term parliament of owls in his children's book series The

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<v Speaker 1>Chronicles of Narnia, a nod to Chaucer's poem A Parliament

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<v Speaker 1>of Fowls. The term is now recognized in dictionaries as

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<v Speaker 1>being the correct term for a group of owls. There

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<v Speaker 1>are meanwhile, few nouns of assemblage for insects mentioned in

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<v Speaker 1>the Book of Saint Albans. We still refer to a

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<v Speaker 1>swarm of bees, which was recorded in the book, but

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<v Speaker 1>we don't talk as much about a business of flies

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<v Speaker 1>or a flock of lice. If you've ever heard of

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<v Speaker 1>a kindle of kittens, that comes from the Middle English

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<v Speaker 1>word kindle in which meant to give birth or produce

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<v Speaker 1>a litter, which was originally used only for puppies, but

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<v Speaker 1>is now commonly used for all kinds baby animals. A

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<v Speaker 1>group of adult cats might be a glaring or a pounce,

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<v Speaker 1>but a crowd of feral hats is a destruction. Anyone

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<v Speaker 1>concerned about the decline of migrating songbirds can understand why

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<v Speaker 1>that might be. Dogs, which were as much a man's

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<v Speaker 1>best friend in the Middle Ages as today, got a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of play. In the Book of Saint Alban's, hunting

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<v Speaker 1>hounds alone got several group titles a cry, a mute,

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<v Speaker 1>a pack, and a kennel. Some of the most inventive

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<v Speaker 1>terms of venery are applied to wild animals, and Jacob

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<v Speaker 1>said because they began as hunting terms. The original names

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<v Speaker 1>from the Book of Saint Alban's reflected a specific societal

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<v Speaker 1>disposition towards the animal being hunted. A pride of lions

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<v Speaker 1>is a good example. Others that came later, such as

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<v Speaker 1>a wisdom of wombats, may be inaccurate, as wombats are

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<v Speaker 1>rather solitary and don't spend time in groups. Others likely

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<v Speaker 1>referred to qualities of the animals themselves. A business of

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<v Speaker 1>ferrets came from a business of ferrets, which makes more

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<v Speaker 1>sense than business if you've spent any time at all

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<v Speaker 1>watching ferrets. These days, folks continue to make up new

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<v Speaker 1>nouns of assemblage and bring back old ones. Thus we

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<v Speaker 1>can talk about a prickle of hedgehogs, an obstinacy of Buffalo,

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<v Speaker 1>a bloat of hippos, and a game of whales regardless

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<v Speaker 1>of whether we're planning on hunting them or not. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler

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<v Speaker 1>Clang for iHeart Media and how Stuff Works. For more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and a wonder of other topics, visit our

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<v Speaker 1>home planet, how stuff works dot com.