I’m trying to rationlize a false memory(?) Apparently a group of cats is actually a Clowder. Nowhere else on the internet calls it a Whisper?
I swear I was taught this the same day I learned ‘a school of fish’ and ‘a murder of crows.’ I remembered it all these years because I’d always think ‘whispuuurrrr’ in my head.
Help me out of my denial. 😭
Does anybody actually use these goofy terms for groups of animals? Seems like they mostly exist as a novelty.
Well they make some great puns/jokes.
A man regularly was feeding crows in his yard in an attempt to get them to follow and protect him.
He was arrested for attempted murder.
Murder of crows is the only one I’ve seen used unironically
I’ve also used an unkindness of ravens.
Is there even a reason they exist? Like, is it actually important to a biologist or something to say “herd of cows” instead of “group of cows”?
the explanation i heard once is that they were made by rich hunter fellas so they could determine who else was a rich hunter fella
you’ve never heard flock of geese? herd of cows? school of fish? these are incredibly common.
Those aren’t the ones I’m talking about. Flocks, herds, and schools apply to many different kinds of birds, land animals, and fish, respectively. Why would anyone need to use the word “murder” instead of “flock” for crows? A cackle of hyenas? A conspiracy of lemurs? Let’s be serious here. What’s wrong with saying a group of lemurs?
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None of those are goofy terms though…
A flamboyance of flamingos? A business of ferrets? A sloth of bears?
A gay agenda of peacocks
you only think they are goofy because they are more common, so you’re used to the terms. How is “murder” of crows any more silly than a “school” of fish?
I guess I just think that there’s a marked difference between using collective nouns that already exist in a language and making up brand new ones whole cloth just for the sake of being clever.
Merriam-Webster writes that most terms of venery fell out of use in the 16th century, including a “murder” for crows. It goes on to say that some of the terms in The Book of Saint Albans were “rather fanciful”, explaining that the book extended collective nouns to people of specific professions, such as a “poverty” of pipers. It concludes that for lexicographers, many of these do not satisfy criteria for entry by being “used consistently in running prose” without meriting explanation. Some terms that were listed as commonly used were “herd”, “flock”, “school”, and “swarm”.
People use “pod of dolphins” relatively often.
I remember reading through the list and thinking “wtf is a ‘clowder,’ hopefully they don’t mean ‘chowder*’”? That’s at least 20 years ago. I’ve never heard “whisper.”
*I have some familiarly with Boston, the land of “chowda,” which is not know to contain cats.
Never heard of a whisper, but never heard of a lot of these either (some sound made up by five-year-olds).
I’ve only heard “clowder”, “conference”, and “pack”.
This post gives me a good idea for a new name for a group of clams.
I’ve only heard it called a clowder. I have heard some jokey names for collective nouns, but I think only a few are semiofficial? Like the murder of crows, etc.
Never heard of a whisper of cats before.
Maybe someone in your family started saying that and that’s where you picked it up.
School of fish is common enough to say that is what the group is called, just like many groups of mammals are herds or packs depending on whether they are predators or prey. A murder of crows is common enough in memes to say the term is currently used although a flock of crows is probably even more commonly used in the real world because flocks is used a lot for birds.
If it isn’t commonly used then that isn’t what they are called in the modern day or is only used in specific contexts.
Most of the things you will see online are either something that was used for a period of time in the past, used in a very limited context, or someone being creative on the internet and it getting repeated in those lists that are as reliable as the ones that attribute quotes to the wrong people. If you watch very many nature shows and haven’t heard the term, then it probably isn’t a common use and could be the latter.
