As we reported in our occasional e-newsletter, the recent discovery of dozens of previously unknown black holes has stargazers wondering: What’s the collective noun for a cluster of black holes? Our readers obliged with some clever suggestions, including a baffle of black holes, a sink of black holes, a density of black holes, a vacancy of black holes, and perhaps most poignantly, a loneliness of black holes. Maybe just the internet? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “A Good Collective Noun for Black Holes”
In one of our recent newsletters, we were talking about the fact that astronomers reported earlier this year that they’d been looking at an area of the universe where they thought there was one big black hole, but it turned out that there were a few dozen smaller holes, and they were trying to figure out what’s the collective noun for a lot of black holes in the universe.
And we got a lot of responses about that. Leslie Campbell suggested that the collective term for black holes would be a baffle, which I think makes sense because what are they?
Sarah Hashmi said a sink, like a sink hole of black holes. Lillian Barron suggested that a bunch of black holes could be called a density or a vacancy or even a loneliness, a loneliness of black holes.
Yeah, I like the melancholiness of that one. Yes, I do too. And by the way, if you want to receive our newsletter about once a month, go to waywordradio.org slash newsletter and sign up.
Proposed addition to your list of collective terms for a group of black holes: loculus. I first encountered this word when I had a cyst removed; the doctor dictated in his notes that the cyst was “loculated”, which appears to come from the Latin “locus” for “place”, and I took this to mean that the cyst in question was spongey in texture, a lot of little compartments instead of one big one.