• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    4 days ago

    Actual terms:

    • conspiracy of ravens
    • flight of pigeons

    Ravens are smart, but I really don’t think they’re planning anything nefarious. Pigeons on the other hand…

  • rivan@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    My favorite is a Business of Ferrets, as the Latin translation for ferret is ‘little thief’.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    4 days ago

    LOL yes I’m all for mocking species-specific group names. Just say “bunch” or “group” and everybody knows exactly what you mean.

    • Hoimo@ani.socialEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      There are useful group names, but they differentiate between some general types of animals, or by their collective movement. A pack of wolves acts very different from a herd of zebras, but much the same as a pack of hyenas. So if you’re looking at a group of dog-like hunters from a large distance, you could call it a pack without knowing whether they’re wolves or hyenas. That makes it a word with a proper function, communicating exactly as much information as you need and no more.

      Species-specific is just a meme, no one in their right mind would ever use them in real conversation, because “a parliament of chimps” would technically be redundant if “parliament” already meant “group of chimps”. But it doesn’t, obviously, so you’re forced to specify “chimps” anyway, making “parliament” useless and confusing.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Absolutely, there are useful group names that were intelligently thought out, and there are ones where somebody said Oh this would be cute - a stitch of knitters…

  • umbraroze@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    A turtle factoid! 🐢

    A pancake tortoise (malacochersus tornieri) hatchling is called a Morsel, an adult is called a Flapjack, and a group is called a Stack.

    …Not really, but, uh, anyway.

  • xia@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    How I imagine textbooks look in the Idiocracy universe… which is slowly merging with our own.

    • _stranger_@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 days ago

      This is from a religion textbook, teaching what Adam named these things in the garden of eden. Interestingly we get the word “fuck load” from this passage in the Bible:

      “And Adam named the bees what he did, and so a gathering of them became a fuckload as Adam saw how many bees there were, and was pleased.”