And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The results of the “A Way with Words” Collective Noun Contest! What collective noun would you apply to groups of 1) tennis players, 2) aliens from outer space, and 3) language-loving word hosts? You sent us a cleverness of witty entries, and Martha has the winners.
Transcript of “A Collection of Collective Nouns (minicast)”
Welcome to another podcast edition of A Way with Words.
I’m Martha Barnette. My co-host, Grant Barrett, just left here with a butterfly net. He said something about going out to collect specimens of slang.
Anyway, speaking of collecting, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the results of the A Way with Words Collective Noun Contest. You’ll recall that on a recent episode of our show, Jennifer from Sarasota called us to talk about collective nouns. And we discussed several of our favorites, including an exaltation of larks and a shrewdness of apes and a clowder of cats.
Well, Grant and I decided that it would be great to hold our own collective noun contest online at our brand new A Way with Words discussion forum. You can visit the forum and meet fellow word lovers there at waywordradio.org. That’s Wayword, as in Way with Words, waywordradio.org.
On the forum, we asked you to propose new collective nouns for the following three types of items. One, a group of tennis players. Two, a group of aliens from outer space, say a crockery of aliens. And finally, putting all modesty aside, we asked you to come up with a collective noun for more than one language-loving radio host.
Well, the results are in, and all I can say is that Grant and I need a collective noun for a whole bunch of clever answers. Now, before I announce the winner of the first A Way with Words Collective Nounathon, I want to share with you a few of the other strong contenders.
Now, you remember the first assignment was a collective noun for a group of tennis players. Mark W. suggested a set of tennis players. Well, of course. And a former member with the mysterious name Gray Enigma suggested a court of tennis players, which I also like, and a serving of tennis players. And I have to share this groaner from J.B. Villarreal, who suggested a wimble ton of tennis players. J.B., I’m afraid you win the Collective Nounathon’s Punter Up Award. Now here, take it before Grant gets back. He can’t stand that kind of humor.
Anyway, moving on. What’s a collective noun for aliens from outer space? This query inspired many of you to the outer limits of creativity. Randy Truman proposed a Roswell of aliens, which I really like, and others included a Trek of aliens, a Spielberg of aliens, and a probe of aliens. Ouch.
Another strong contender was a Grok of Martians, and, of course, that’s a reference to the verb coined by Robert Heinlein, meaning to understand profoundly, a grok of Martians. For some reason, though, the collective noun for language-loving radio hosts proved to be the toughest challenge of all. Mark Namark offered a cackle of lexophiles. Well, he has that one right. And T.C. Burks came up with a text of word herders.
So plenty of strong individual entries here. But of course, the goal of a collective noun contest is to produce the best collection of collective nouns. And in that respect, two finalists stood out. So without further ado, and please hold your applause until the end, the runner-up in the collection of collective nouns contest is a string of tennis players, a swarm of aliens, and a logjam of logophiles. That entry was from Phil Constantine, so congratulations, Phil.
And now for the winning collection of collective nouns. The winning entry was… a deuce of tennis players, a spectrum of aliens, and a bevard of word hosts. What? A bevard of word hosts? Well, it’s from bavard, which in French means garrulous. So, a bevard of word hosts. Now, we’ll grant that this one does require a bit of explanation, but we kind of liked it anyway. So how about a big round of applause for Eddie, the forum member who sent in the winning entry. Eddie, enjoy that copy of Jeff Prucher’s new book, The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction.
And there’s lots more going on at our discussion forum right now, so stop by and join us. That’s WayWord, as in way with words, waywordradio.org. In fact, why not drop by and tell us your favorite term for a person who loves talking about words? Do you prefer Logophile, Wordster, Wordnista, or maybe something else entirely? Amble on over to waywordradio.org and tell us.
And remember, Grant and I welcome your questions and comments by email, too. Our email address is words@waywordradio.org. Or call our anytime language line. It’s 1-877-929-9673. We’d love to hear from you.
Here’s one last collective noun. How about a gratitude of thanks for listening to our podcast? Talk with you soon. I’m Martha Barnette.
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Thank you.
I’m not sure how to categorize a volley of tennis players, but in the early 1960’s, as a young sailor, I became acustomed to such terms as a ”confusion” or Ensigns or an ”illegitimacy” of Marines. (My son is one – so cut me some slack, ok?) There were many more, but it may take a while for me to recall others that may be used on dry land.
Ha – those are great, Tom. I hope you’ll continue to chime in with more of your firsthand experience, either on our show, or our discussion forum!
I liked this one cuz i have never thought about collective nouns in english. In portuguese we have lots of them, for example one for fishes, one for boats, for cows and etc. But thinking of it in english is a totally brand new thing for me. It’s really broaded my mind! LOL
Jorge, enlighten us! What’s the P’gese collective for fish and cows? (And does P’gese differentiate between live fish and caught fish like Spanish?)
Actually, there is no difference between live fish or caught fish, they are all fish, which is “peixe”. The collective noun for fish (peixe) is “cardume” and for cows is “manada”, if im not mistaken… gotta confess these colective nouns are really a “pain in the ass”, as some native would say… we dont use those words, and if we wanna say lots of fishes we just say it, we dont use the word that designate this meaning.
Hello everyone i really need to know some collective nouns in space for my project and its really hard to find/think of collective nouns. If u happen to know some could you tell me? i already have crewmates spacemen fleet and belt. Id be really happy if you could help!
Hi, Tammy — It’s hard to know exactly what you mean here by “collective nouns” in this case. What’s your project?
May Jorge Faria doesn’t know, but we have different words in Portuguese for live fish (peixe), and caught fish (pescado).
Well, xico, that’s what I thought as well, but I just returned from a couple of weeks in Argentina, and everyone I spoke with was using “pescado” for both live fish and “fished” fish. So I’m wondering if there are regional differences in both languages.
Hi Martha! You know the way people use the language… and this is the how languages evolve. Though I’m not an expert, I’m sure the “correct” is peixe for live fish, and pescado for caught fish. In the place I live (São Paulo), people tend to say peixe for both, but I know in other regions of Brazil, and Spanish speaking countries in South America, people will say pescado for both.
Well, calling it “pescado” while it’s still swimming around sounds like what we call in English “counting your chickens before they’re hatched.” (Do you have an equivalent phrase in Portuguese?)
Btw, I’d like to invite those of you participating in this comment thread to move over to the Discussion Forum, where we’d like to move these threads. I’ve picked up the discussion we’re having here in this message thread, so please join in!