These collective nouns for different groups of animals are called "terms of venery". They originated among hunters back in the middle ages. See <https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/a-drudge-of-lexicographers-presents-collective-nouns/common-collectives>.
Mark M -----Original Message----- From: Texascavers [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee H. Skinner Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2021 1:33 AM To: [email protected]; Texas Cavers; Sandia Grotto Subject: Re: [Texascavers] [SWR CAVERS] Cavers Donald, You're right - maybe it's a silly venture - maybe cavers will refuse to adopt the noun after the contest - but it's a fun thing to do anyway, and it exhibits a little creativity that we can share among ourselves, and maybe a few laughs in these days when real caving is limited. So let's see what we wind up with. The future is unwritten. Lee On 4/24/2021 10:47 PM, DONALD G. DAVIS wrote: > On Sat, 24 Apr 2021, Lee H. Skinner wrote: > >> Thanks, Mimi! >> >> Very cute essay. >> >> But there will be only one winner and no 2nd or 3rd place winners. I >> will announce the number of votes each name got, and if there is no >> majority, I will hold a runoff vote (there is no reason to rush it >> through). >> >> So the term will refer to all cavers, not different types of cavers. >> You have a herd of longhorns, not packs of Angus or schools of >> Herefords. The purpose of the survey is to get cavers to start using >> the winning term enough (when appropriate) so that it get ingrained >> in cavers' minds such that it will become automatically used >> throughput the world caving community , eventually becoming >> mainstream in time so that the noun will get into dictionaries. > > I've stayed out of this so far, because I've never been a fan of > weird collective names for particular animals like "murder" of crows, > but here's my two cents' worth. I've always thought that "team" of > cavers is perfectly satisfactory, at least for project caving. I > can't foresee an eccentric group name actually catching on among > active cavers--what would they need it for? Seems as if it would just > complicate communication. I suspect that these oddities got their > start among farmers who kept several kinds of livestock and could > shorten their talk if every species had its unique flock term--or in > class societies where each class had a name like "Untouchables" or > "Brahmins"--but it's hard to see how this fits cavers. > > --Donald _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com [email protected] | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
