On naming social groups
For a story I'm working on I just had to look up what a group of ferrets are called. I knew that a gathering of crows is a murder. Penguins are a colony. Bees are a hive. Ferrets, I didn't know.
Apparently they're called a business.
This seems highly inappropriate. I don't know if you've ever seen ferrets in action, but there are far better things we could call them. A tornado of ferrets. A clown car of ferrets. A holy shit that's a lot of ferrets of ferrets.
And that got me thinking. Why don't we ever name groups of people in similar fashion? For humans it's pretty much group, gang, tribe, or population. But never anything fun.
"That's a group of teenagers."
"There goes a group of senior citizens."
I think we can do better. And just to give you guys an idea of much fun we could be having in naming groups of people, I'm going to offer you several highly practical applications to get us started.
People in Groups
A kegger of sports fansA scurvy of goth kidsA conspiracy of politiciansA parchment of poetsA gravity of scientistsA dadaism of toddlersA procession of mall walkersA commercial of pop starsA conformity of hipstersA literacy test of Walmart shoppersAn abandon of retail workersA scribble of doctorsAn error of customersA patience of nursesA hairball of cat ownersA smother of grandparentsA bigotry of minoritiesA felony of minorsA crossword of therapistsA Phish of stonersA calamity of stock brokersA bumper car of drunk driversA butt plug of managers
Well that's all I've got. Feel free to comment with more.
Apparently they're called a business.
This seems highly inappropriate. I don't know if you've ever seen ferrets in action, but there are far better things we could call them. A tornado of ferrets. A clown car of ferrets. A holy shit that's a lot of ferrets of ferrets.
And that got me thinking. Why don't we ever name groups of people in similar fashion? For humans it's pretty much group, gang, tribe, or population. But never anything fun.
"That's a group of teenagers."
"There goes a group of senior citizens."
I think we can do better. And just to give you guys an idea of much fun we could be having in naming groups of people, I'm going to offer you several highly practical applications to get us started.
People in Groups
A kegger of sports fansA scurvy of goth kidsA conspiracy of politiciansA parchment of poetsA gravity of scientistsA dadaism of toddlersA procession of mall walkersA commercial of pop starsA conformity of hipstersA literacy test of Walmart shoppersAn abandon of retail workersA scribble of doctorsAn error of customersA patience of nursesA hairball of cat ownersA smother of grandparentsA bigotry of minoritiesA felony of minorsA crossword of therapistsA Phish of stonersA calamity of stock brokersA bumper car of drunk driversA butt plug of managers
Well that's all I've got. Feel free to comment with more.
Published on May 05, 2014 11:13
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