A Group Of Turtledoves Is Called A Pitying
May 12th, 2010 | Published in Amnials, The Madness Of Lists, Uninvited Explanations Of Literary & Historical Phenomena | 4 Comments
What an alien-sounding sentence. Yet it’s true, according to this random site I found on the internet. I love all the names of “groups of critters.” Here’s my all-time Excellent Eight:
- A group of turtledoves is called a pitying.
- A group of ferrets is called a business.
- A group of magpies is called a tiding.
- A group of mallards is called a sord. (Ducks have their own term.)
- A group of snipes is called a wisp.
- A group of starlings is called a murmuration. (Say word!)
- A group of toads is called a knot.
- A group of trout is called a hover.
Even more awesome—if this list of olden-schoole names of groups of animals can get more awesome, which it can’t—these are terms from venery, meaning the hunting of game animals. Venery was what rich dudes did in olden times. (The poor just scraped coach-flattened squirrel off the country lanes and begged the nearest squire for enough dough and suet to make squirrelmince pie.)
Venery also means sexual pleasure, indulgence, the pursuit of desire—the human hunt. These minor semiotic synchronies, homologies, and sly metaphors (paradefinitions, slang-making grunts of extra-meaning) cheer the dude up almost as much as the names of groups of critters—which are, inf act, paradefinitional. Ferrets must have struck some olden dude as looking business-y at some point. And a group of toads, bumpy and knuckling everywhere over itself, calls to mind a knot.
I just don’t get how a confederation of trouts is supposed to hover…
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:02 pm (#)
I guess it’s a little outdated at this point but have you ever heard of the book “An Exaltation of Doves”? It’s basically a book full of these ‘groupings’ collected by James Lipton (yes, that James Lipton. He was also briefly a pimp.) Its one of my dad’s favorite books. Great illustrations too.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:05 pm (#)
Urk. That’s “Exaltation of LARKS.” Don’t know where I got doves from, though frankly now that I think of it doves makes more sense what with the Christian connotations…
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm (#)
Man, I gotta get that Lipton book.
Venery terms are hilarious. As are all odd lists. I think listology will be my department one day, once I have enough academe-cred. Partial list of listers to teach:
• John Hodgman
• James Lipton, apparently
• Roberto Bolano
• Woolf (Orlando, three fields, what Orlando’s father saw)
• Aubrey (Brief Lives, pick any set)
• This band Los Campesinos (the Peasants), who have a good song called “My Year In Lists”
October 13th, 2010 at 4:09 pm (#)
[...] The collective names for animals are rad. Perhaps approaching the same order of rad-ness are the terms for animals’ homes, which vary from the common pig pen to these jams, my favorites: [...]