The strange world of adjectives*…


*Edited: In this case, more properly known as "collective nouns."  Thanks Peter!

Who comes up with these descriptions?

A stalk of celery?  A ream of paper?  For crying out loud, a murder of crows??


Sure, you got your regular normal descriptors.  A box of Kleenex.  A carton of milk.  A bag of chips.  All well and good.  We can get behind these kinds of "salt of the earth" descriptors.

 

But… a pod of whales?  How does that possibly relate to your normal pod of peas?


A pair of glasses? Sorry, but I only see one entity there!  If it’s a “pair,” where the matching entity (like socks and shoes)?  The other half of the glasses, you say?  Nope, non-sequitur.

 

Who comes up with this stuff, these weird collective nouns?  What deranged minds are at work?

 

Q: Your turn.  What are some other strange collective nouns?  I will award the coveted “virtual blue ribbon” to the one that impresses me the most!  So, start thinking!!

 

(by PrimalSoup)

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