A flummox of questions?
Dear Word Detective: I’ve just heard a new one that I can’t find in most of the usual authorities, while it appears plainly in others: a group of crows described as a “murder of crows.” Any clues? — KT, Albuquerque, NM.
Thanks for a great question. I’m surprised that you haven’t run into “murder of crows” before — the internet is full of compilations of such collective nouns, colorful terms for groups of animals, people or things. Some of the terms collected on websites, such as “an absence of waiters” or “an attitude of teenagers,” are clearly of recent vintage, coined in tiny fits of wit by the kind of people who drive their friends and families mad with constant puns. For me, a little of this goes a long way, and eventually “a brace of orthodontists” or “a disputation of lawyers” makes me feel like I’m trapped in one of those creepy-cutesy public radio quiz shows.
But it would be mistake to tar all of these terms as simply casual inventions in pursuit of a chuckle. Of course, someone did make them up. The entire English language was “invented” in one way or another. But the truly interesting collective nouns, such as “murder of crows” or “a cete of badgers,” were coined a very long time ago, mostly in the 15th century, and far from being merely fanciful inventions, these terms were once considered the proper way to describe a group of animals. Some, such as “a pride of lions” and “a gaggle of geese,” remain in common use today after being rescued from obscurity and revived in the 19th century.
We owe our knowledge of these terms today to several lists compiled in the 15th century, the most complete being “The Book of St. Albans,” attributed to Dame Juliana Barnes, prior of a nunnery in England. But for modern readers, the best introduction to the genre is “An Exaltation of Larks” (1968) by James Lipton (best known today as host of “Inside the Actors Studio” on the Bravo cable channel). Lipton divides his book into three parts: terms found in the 15th century collections that remain in use today (such as “a host of angels” and “a string of ponies”); old terms (such as “a cast of hawks” and “a knot of toads”) that were once common but have fallen into obscurity, and, lastly, oddities from the old collections. These mostly describe people, rather than animals, from the logical “an illusion of painters” to the intriguing “a rage of maidens” (employing “rage” in the 14th century sense of “jesting, fun; riotous or wanton behavior”).
As for why we call a group of crows a “murder,” the inspiration for the term is a mystery, lost since the 15th century. As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “murder” may “perhaps [allude] to the crow’s traditional association with violent death, or … to its harsh and raucous cry.” Then again, since crows have recently been demonstrated to be capable of advanced reasoning and even tool-making, maybe they actually did plot a few murders back in the 15th century.
We’ve just decided that the plural for “doofus” is to be: “doofi”.
We further hereby propose the collective noun for more than one doofus to be “a chagrin of doofi”.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
The constant puns like the brace of orthodontists are really annoying. If you read los angeles times for example, their headlines are full of them, quite annoying don’t you say? Katty
ed: not as annoying as the commercial link you put (and I removed) under “brace of orthodontists.”
I have read that a Murder of Crows came about because crows have been known to kill a dying cow.
Is there a collective noun for LOONS? (a lunacy or loonacy of loons?) A friend just returned from Maine where she had seen ten or eleven loons at once and didn’t know whether it was a “flock” or something else.
Thank you!
For loons, I think “a conspiracy” would do nicely.
One search team…… A whole google of searchers ???
I recently decided that the collective noun for more than one nun is a “pinto”.
Amusingly this ‘article’ is cited in Wikipedia as one of two sources for the expression even though it gives the square root of bugger all as evidence.
@Goatscrote:
I also ended up here from Wikipedia and while I agree with you that this is not an appropriate primary source citation, I wouldn’t go so far as to take the root of bugger-all from it. This article does provide you with the sources (James Lipton’s “An Exaltation of Larks”, 1968 and Dame Juliana Barnes, “The Book of St. Albans”), which are what the wiki article should have referenced in the first place.
Thanks for an interesting write up. Just ordered “An Exaltation of Larks.”
a tattlery of comments
I would like “a rage of comments”
The correct term for a group of crows is a flock. The term “Murder of Crows” is poetic at best and has only come into common usage since the book, “An Exaltation of Larks”, listed it, and various authors thought it was a clever title for mystery books and movies. No ornithologist uses the term and most crow fanciers avoid it. Far from being murderous, crows are very family oriented, and frequently show behavior that might well be considered altruistic. Check the crows.net website for more information about crows.
@Michael Westerfield: Yes, they are quite family-oriented and altruistic, aren’t they? I’ve seen a nestful of them and the female won’t let anyone near it! Like, not into it, but she considers a four-kilometer radius from her nest her territory! I seriously think crows and I have much in common–starting with our hatred and mistrust of babysitters!
Per the American Society of Crows and Ravens – or at least, per their policy of mutual support (as crows themselves are known to do), the correct term is a “Caucus of Crows.”
1. Sounds like something a crow would say;
2. Rhymes with “raucous,” and
3. Suggests a group with an agenda, perhaps secret.
It’s worthy of being a meme, so I promote its use where I can.
I’m out on an island off the NW coast, where we don’t have American crows, but rather Northwestern Crows Corvus caurinus – another name that sounds like someone asked a crow.
Although crows are despised by some as nest-robbers, their alarm calls when predators threaten are well understood by other species; songbirds indeed benefit greatly by the crow’s alert protection.
Mr. Wewsterfield clearly hasn’t researched his response above. If he did he would find that theterm Murder of crows originated in the 1400′s. Nothing to do with any modern day book……………..Have a “barrel of laughs”, folks..
Jim, please note that I stated that the term had “only come into common usage” since the publication of “An Exaltation of Larks”. I did not say that it first appeared in that book. It is an old British term which was not commonly used until it appeared in the recent popular book along with a host of poetic or archaic terms for groups of other creatures. It has been made even more popular by its use in titles of mystery books, names of music groups, etc. The fact remains that it is quite inappropriate to use to describe gatherings of these social, intelligent, and relatively peaceful birds. http://www.crows.net You could also enjoy my recent book, “The Language of Crows: The crows.net Book of the American Crow.” http://www.crows.net/crowbook.html
I always supposed that term hinted at the idea that if you kill someone and leave the body in some remote or hidden outdoors location, a “murder” of crows might reveal your secret.
How about a “flush of toilets” when refering to you know what?
I have assumed that a Murder of Crows referred to their nest robbing. When a group of them move through an area in the spring they are very good at robbing baby birds from the nests. One or two distract while the other(s) get the babies.
I’ve never heard of a Caucus of Crows, though certainly, I’m familiar with a Murder of them. I do like the explanation for Caucus, however.
Ravens, I have seen are often named an “Unkindness.”
I propose a name for a collection of basset hounds, based loosely on one of their most famous anatomical featurs… I name a group of these cute and comical canines, a “Lobe of Basset Hounds.”
Thoughts? Email me at Tyrskald@aol.com
Thanks!
Jim: Your evidence being? Or are we just saying things like they’re facts now?
“Gosh, Jim didn’t research his comment or he’d have seen that ‘a murder of crows’ is as old as language itself!”
it is because the have been seen hunting small game -I have seen them kill and eat an entire nest of young squirls and have seen a video of then killing a samil of young rabbits
Hey Jim, maybe you should read the article before commenting.
How about ‘ a string of asses….’
I studies environmental science with two ornithologists and they did call it a murder of crows. Additionally, Christian and Squiggy need to lay off Jim. If either of you had actually read the article, you would have seen that it supports what he said and that Westerfield obviously did not even read it!
I assure you that I did indeed read the article. I simply disagree with the use of the term, regardless of the tradition behind it.
Hi there, I was just gonna say, corvids are actually more intelligent than dogs. (yeah cause they’re according to tests as smart as a chimpanzee) What a slap in the face to all the dog lovers. Now, I have nothing against the furry canines, but I love me my corvidae. Also, I hereby name a group of jinglepots, which is a word for stupid people: “A cacophony of jinglepots”.
In ancient Japan, because of the difficulty of feeding rural families, the very elderly were taken to a mountaintop in the winter where they were left to die. It was fervently hoped by the family that the elders would die of exposure before the crows got to work on them. Their departure conserved the limited food supply for the rest. One of Japan’s traditional plays “Sakurayama” is about this gruesome practice. Tokyo and Yokohama have the largest crows I’ve ever seen. They look to have bodies about 18 inches long and are armed with 3 inch beaks. They’re intelligent, brash, noisy, and fearless and the term, “Murder of Crows” fits them perfectly.
How about a “pliney of poets” or a “fliver of Fords”? I mean, if we’re going to coin phrases, at least have some fun with it.
Is it true that a “congress” of baboons is an acceptable
group name used to supplant “troop?” I know that language is constantly changing, both words and definitions, but how often is “congress” used in reference to baboons?
LOL @ Dina..
to answer your question, I would say at least 5 to 10 times a day on CSPAN.