Mark, Thank you for that. I read the whole article and found it wonderful and entertaining!
In regards to our little collective noun contest, this toward the end of the article stood out. “Language lovers adore collective nouns, but most of them don't meet the criteria for entry. For lexicographers, a word hasn't fully entered the language until it's used consistently in running prose without any sort of parenthetical explanation or gloss, and many of these terms haven't. How often does one need to refer, for instance, to a group of brewers or butchers?...” But, we are cavers, full of wit, knowledge, and collective fun, so who knows what will happen? I for one am looking forward to the results. Mimi Jasek Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 25, 2021, at 8:57 AM, Mark Minton <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Southwestern Cavers of the National Speleological Society" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/046301d739da%24f53ba6e0%24dfb2f4a0%24%40caver.net.
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