A weep of willows, an embarrassment of weeds, and a pride of dandelions are listener-made collective terms for plants, following a recent conversation about the form. The fun depends on sound and sense: a churn of buttercups, a universe of cosmos, a mouthful of salvia, a frost of birches, and Ron Draney’s an something of forget-me-nots. Dan Davis, Bob Cunningham, Stuart Clipper, Kathleen Reichert, and Glenn Atkinson supplied other garden-variety inventions. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “A Garden of Wordplay Yields “a Chime of Four O’Clocks” and “an Embarrassment of Weeds””
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A while back we talked about collective names for plants.
Remember that, Grant?
Yeah.
Why should animals have all the fun? A bevy of quail and a gaggle of geese.
Well, we asked you to send us some more examples, and boy, we just have a whole bouquet of collective plant names, and I wanted to share just a few of them.
How about a churn of buttercups?
Nice. I like that.
Dan Davis sent us a weep of willows, which I like. I really like this one from Bob Cunningham, an embarrassment of weeds.
Well, yes. I can relate to that.
Stuart Clipper and Kathleen Reichert, both of Minneapolis, sent several. Among them, a pride of dandelions.
Nice. Very good.
A universe of cosmos. I love this one.
A mouthful of salvia. It’s like saliva.
Yeah, yeah. It sort of works better on the page, I think.
And a sea of anemones, a chime of four o’clocks.
I used to have four o’clocks in the yard.
Oh, I didn’t know those. They open or close at four?
I think they close at four o’clock.
A pair of lady slippers.
And then over on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org, we got several great examples, one of which came from somebody there named Cheddar Melt.
I don’t think that’s the person’s real name. But Cheddar Melt suggested that for holly, you could have a buddy of holly.
For mint, a Denver of mint. For birches, I love this, a frost of birches.
Glenn Atkinson suggested a koi of wallflowers. I love that.
And finally, Ron Draney suggested an something of forget-me-nots. I love that.
So thanks to all of you for sending those in. We got a big kick out of those.
If you have more collective nouns for plants, send them along to words@waywordradio.org or give us a call 877-929-9673 or call or write with your questions about language.
