What about the children of cavers? Do we get a name? 😄 Sent from my iPhone
> On Apr 25, 2021, at 4:02 PM, Lee H. Skinner <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks, Mark. > > > Excellent article on plural nouns. I encourage all here to read it: > > https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/a-drudge-of-lexicographers-presents-collective-nouns/common-collectives > > > Lee > > >> On 4/25/2021 7:57 AM, Mark Minton 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/147d5ad5-db94-0091-c499-5b88544f7bc7%40thuntek.net. _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com [email protected] | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
