Re:Why Physicists Tried to Put a Ferret in a Particle Accele...
by Udik on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @04:48AM
(#19622911)
Apparently the invention and usage of ultra-specific collective nouns for animals (related to hunting) was fashionable in courts in the 14th and 15th century [1].
Most of the sources about collective nouns refer to the "Book of Saint Albans" as the origin of a large number of them [2]. But the book was meant to humorous, and includes collective nouns even for groups of people: "a superfluity of nuns", "a melody of harpers", "a doctrine of doctors", etc.
I imagine it was a fashionable court game to recite all the hilarious collective names for a vast number of animals and professions. Still, completely pointless from the point of view of communication.
Most of the sources about collective nouns refer to the "Book of Saint Albans" as the origin of a large number of them [2]. But the book was meant to humorous, and includes collective nouns even for groups of people: "a superfluity of nuns", "a melody of harpers", "a doctrine of doctors", etc.
I imagine it was a fashionable court game to recite all the hilarious collective names for a vast number of animals and professions. Still, completely pointless from the point of view of communication.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Saint_Albans