In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people ("a group of people"), or dogs ("a group of dogs"), or objects ("a group of stones").
Some collective nouns are specific to one kind of thing, especially
terms of venery
In linguistics, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people (" ...
, which identify groups of specific animals. For example, "pride" as a term of venery always refers to lions, never to dogs or cows. Other examples come from
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
such as a group of owls, which is called a "parliament".
Different forms of English handle verb
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
with collective
count noun
In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun that can be modified by a quantity and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational determiners like ''every'', ''each'', ''several'', et ...
s differently. For example, users of
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
generally accept that collective nouns take either singular or plural verb forms depending on context and the
metonymic
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
shift that it implies.
Derivation
Morphological derivation
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.''
It is differentiat ...
accounts for many collective words and various languages have common
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es for denoting collective nouns. Because derivation is a slower and less productive
word formation
In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:
* the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or
* the creation of new lexemes in a particular language
Morphological
A common method of word form ...
process than the more overtly
syntactical
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
morphological methods, there are fewer collectives formed this way. As with all derived words, derivational collectives often differ
semantically
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
from the original words, acquiring new
connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...
s and even new
denotation
In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of an expression is its literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of being warm. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning including connotation. For inst ...
s.
Affixes
Proto-Indo-European
Early Proto-Indo-European used the suffix *eh₂ to form collective nouns, which evolved into the Latin neuter plural ending -a. Late Proto-Indo-European used the ending *t, which evolved into the English ending -th, as in "youth".
English
The English endings ''-age'' and ''-ade'' often signify a collective. Sometimes, the relationship is easily recognizable: ''baggage, drainage, blockade''. Though the
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
is plain to see, the derived words take on a distinct meaning. This is a
productive
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process ...
ending, as evidenced in the recent
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
, "
signage
Signage is the design or use of signs and symbols to communicate a message. A signage also means signs ''collectively'' or being considered as a group. The term ''signage'' is documented to have been popularized in 1975 to 1980.
Signs are any ...
".
German
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
uses the
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
''
ge-'' to create collectives. The root word often undergoes
umlaut and
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
ation as well as receiving the ''ge-'' prefix. Nearly all nouns created in that way are of
neuter gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
:
* ', "group of hills, mountain range" ', "mountain" or "hill"
* ', "luggage, baggage" < ', "pack, bundle, pile"
* ', "poultry, fowl (birds)" < late
MHG ', under the influence of ', "wing" < MHG ' <
OHG ' = collective formation of ', "bird"
* ', "plumage" < ', "feather"
* ', "sibling" < ', "sister"
* ', "siblings" < ', "sister"
* "Der Gebirgszug" and "die Bergkette" also mean "mountain range", drawing on the words "der Zug" = train, and "die Kette" = chain.
There are also several endings that can be used to create collectives, such as "welt" and "masse".
Dutch
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
has a similar pattern but sometimes uses the (unproductive)
circumfix
A circumfix (abbreviated ) (also confix or ambifix) is an affix which has two parts, one placed at the start of a word, and the other at the end. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, attached at t ...
':
* ' 'mountain' > ' 'mountain range'
* ' 'bone' > ' 'skeleton'
* ' 'bird' > ' 'poultry'
* ' 'leaf' > ' 'foliage'
Swedish
The following
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
example has different words in the collective form and in the individual form:
* An individual mosquito is a ' (plural: '), but mosquitos as a collective is '.
Esperanto
Esperanto
Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
uses the collective infix -''
ar''- to produce a large number of derived words:
* ''monto'' 'mountain' > ''montaro'' 'mountain range'
* ''birdo'' 'bird' > ''birdaro'' 'flock'
* ''arbo'' 'tree' > ''arbaro'' 'forest'
* ''ŝipo'' 'ship' > ''ŝiparo'' 'fleet'
* ''manĝilo'' 'eating utensil' > ''manĝilaro'' 'silverware', 'cutlery'
Metonymic merging of grammatical number
Two examples of collective nouns are "team" and "government", which are both words referring to groups of (usually) people. Both "team" and "government" are
''countable'' nouns (consider: "one team", "two teams", "most teams"; "one government", "two governments", "many governments").
Agreement in different forms of English
Confusion often stems from the way that different forms of English handle
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
with collective nouns—specifically, whether or not to use the collective singular: the singular verb form with a collective noun. The
plural verb
In linguistics, pluractionality, or verbal number, if not used in iterative aspect, its aspectual sense, is a grammatical aspect that indicates that the action or Verb argument, participants of a verb is/are grammatical number, plural. This diffe ...
forms are often used in
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
with the singular forms of these
countable nouns (e.g., "The team ''have'' finished the project."). Conversely, in the English language as a whole, singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in "-s" that were once considered plural (e.g., "Physics ''is'' my favorite academic subject"). This apparent "number mismatch" is a natural and logical feature of human language, and its mechanism is a subtle
metonymic
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
shift in the concepts underlying the words.
In British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms depending on the context and the
metonymic
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
shift that it implies. For example, "the team ''is'' in the dressing room" (''
formal agreement In linguistics, agreement or concord (abbreviated ) occurs when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates. It is an instance of inflection, and usually involves making the value of some grammatical category (such as gender ...
'') refers to ''the team'' as an ensemble, while "the team ''are'' fighting among themselves" (''
notional agreement'') refers to ''the team'' as individuals. That is also the British English practice with names of countries and cities in sports contexts (e.g., "
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
''have'' won the competition.").
In
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
, collective nouns almost always take singular verb forms (formal agreement). In cases that a metonymic shift would be revealed nearby, the whole sentence should be recast to avoid the metonymy. (For example, "The team are fighting among themselves" may become "the team ''members'' are fighting among themselves" or simply "The team is infighting.") Collective
proper noun
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
s are usually taken as singular ("
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
is expected to release a new phone this year"), unless the plural is explicit in the proper noun itself, in which case it is taken as plural ("The
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...
are scheduled to play the
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...
this weekend"). More explicit examples of collective proper nouns include "
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
is once again the world's largest producer of vehicles," and "
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
is a large producer of
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
here," and "
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...
is an airline company in Europe." Furthermore, "
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...
is a
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
company in North America." Such phrases might look plural, but they are not.
Examples of metonymic shift
A good example of such a metonymic shift in the singular-to-plural direction (which exclusively takes place in British English) is the following sentence: "The team have finished the project." In that sentence, the underlying thought is of the individual members of the team working together to finish the project. Their accomplishment is collective, and the emphasis is not on their individual identities, but they are still discrete individuals; the word choice "team have" manages to convey both their collective and discrete identities simultaneously. Collective nouns that have a singular form but take a plural verb form are called collective plurals. A good example of such a metonymic shift in the plural-to-singular direction is the following sentence: "Mathematics is my favorite academic subject." The word "mathematics" may have originally been plural in concept, referring to mathematic endeavors, but metonymic shift (the shift in concept from "the endeavors" to "the whole set of endeavors") produced the usage of "mathematics" as a singular entity taking singular verb forms. (A true
mass-noun sense of "mathematics" followed naturally.)
Nominally singular pronouns can be collective nouns taking plural verb forms, according to the same rules that apply to other collective nouns. For example, it is correct usage in both British English and American English usage to say: "None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right." In that case, the plural verb is used because the context for "none" suggests more than one thing or person. This also applies to the use of an adjective as a collective noun: "The British are coming!"; "The poor will always be with you."
Other examples include:
* "
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, ...
''was'' founded in
El Cerrito, California
El Cerrito (Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 census. El Cerrito was founded by refugees ...
" (but in British English, "Creedence Clearwater Revival ''were'' founded ...")
* "
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
''have'' won the match" (but in American English, "Arsenal ''has'' won the game")
* "
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
''is'' a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
company headquartered in Japan".
This does not, however, affect the tense later in the sentence:
* "Cream ''is'' a
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
band who ''were'' primarily popular in the 1960s.
Abbreviations provide other "exceptions" in American usage concerning plurals:
* "Runs Batted In" becomes "RBIs". "Smith had 10 RBIs in the last three games."
* "Revised Statutes Annotated" or RSAs. "The RSAs contain our laws."
When only the name is plural but not the object, place, or person:
* "
The bends ''is'' a deadly disease mostly affecting SCUBA divers."
* "''
Hot Rocks'' ''is'' a greatest hits compilation by
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
"
Terms of venery
The tradition of using "terms of venery" or "nouns of assembly," collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals, stems from an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
hunting tradition of the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
. The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It was marked by an extensive proliferation of specialist vocabulary, applying different names to the same feature in different animals. The elements can be shown to have already been part of French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century. In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, the tendency had reached exaggerated and even satirical proportions.
''
The Treatise'', written by
Walter of Bibbesworth
Walter of Bibbesworth (1235–1270) was an English knight and Anglo-Norman poet. Documents confirm that he held land in the parish of Kimpton, Hertfordshire at the farm now called Bibbsworth Hall ("Bibbs Hall" on some maps). About 1250 he serv ...
in the mid-1200s, is the earliest source for collective nouns of animals in any European vernacular (and also the earliest source for animal noises). The ''Venerie'' of Twiti (early 14th century) distinguished three types of
droppings
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
of animals, and three different terms for
herd
A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called ''herding''. These animals are known as gregarious animals.
The term ''herd'' is ...
s of animals.
Gaston Phoebus
Gaston Fébus (also spelt Phoebus) (30 April 1331 – 1391) was the eleventh count of Foix (as Gaston III) and twenty-fourth viscount of Béarn (as Gaston X) from 1343 until his death.
Early life
Gaston was born either in Orthez or Foix, the e ...
(14th century) had five terms for droppings of animals, which were extended to seven in the ''Master of the Game'' (early 15th century). The focus on collective terms for groups of animals emerged in the later 15th century. Thus, a list of collective nouns in Egerton MS 1995, dated to under the heading of "termis of venery &c.", extends to 70 items, and the list in the ''
Book of Saint Albans
''The Book of Saint Albans'' (or ''Boke of Seynt Albans'') is the common title of a book printed in 1486 that is a compilation of matters relating to the interests of the time of a gentleman. It was the last of eight books printed by the St Alba ...
'' (1486) runs to 164 items, many of which, even though introduced by "the compaynys of beestys and fowlys", relate not to venery but to human groups and professions and are clearly humorous, such as "a Doctryne of doctoris"'', "''a Sentence of Juges"'', "''a Fightyng of beggers"'', "''an uncredibilite of Cocoldis"'', "''a Melody of harpers"'', "''a Gagle of women"'', "''a Disworship of Scottis", etc.
The ''Book of Saint Albans'' became very popular during the 16th century and was reprinted frequently.
Gervase Markham
Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first publishe ...
edited and commented on the list in his ''The Gentleman's Academic'', in 1595. The book's popularity had the effect of perpetuating many of these terms as part of the
Standard English
In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...
lexicon even if they were originally meant to be humorous and have long ceased to have any practical application.
Even in their original context of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of
kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English po ...
s, intended as a mark of erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for practical communication. The popularity of the terms in the modern period has resulted in the addition of numerous lighthearted, humorous or facetious
collective nouns.
See also
;Linguistics concepts
*
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...
*
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...
*
Measure word
In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ...
s
*
Plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
*
Plurale tantum
A ''plurale tantum'' (Latin for "plural only"; ) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular fo ...
*
Synesis
In linguistics, synesis () is a traditional grammatical/rhetorical term referring to Agreement (linguistics), agreement (the change of a word form based on words relating to it) due to meaning.
A ''constructio kata synesin'' ( la, constructio ad ...
;Lists
*
List of animal names
In the English language, animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups.
The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is '' The Book of Saint A ...
, including names for groups
; Interdisciplinary
*
Social unit
The term "level of analysis" is used in the social sciences to point to the location, size, or scale of a research target.
"Level of analysis" is distinct from the term "unit of observation" in that the former refers to a more or less integrated s ...
Further reading
* Hodgkin, John. "Proper Terms: An attempt at a rational explanation of the meanings of the Collection of Phrases in 'The Book of St Albans', 1486, entitled 'The Compaynys of besties and fowls and similar lists", ''Transactions of the Philological Society 1907–1910'' Part III, pp. 1–187, Kegan, Paul, Trench & Trübner & Co, Ltd, London, 1909.
* Shulman, Alon. ''A Mess of Iguanas... A Whoop of Gorillas: An Amazement of Animal Facts''. Penguin. (First published Penguin 2009.) .
*
Lipton, James. ''An Exaltation of Larks, or The "Veneral" Game''. Penguin. (First published Grossman Publishers 1968.) (Penguin first reprint 1977 ); in 1993 it was republished in Penguin with ''The Ultimate Edition'' as part of the title with the (paperback), (hardcover)
* PatrickGeorge. ''A filth of starlings''. PatrickGeorge. (First published 2009.) .
* Patrick George. ''A drove of bullocks''. Patrick George. (First published 2009.) .
* Fanous, Samuel (2014). ''A Conspiracy of Ravens: a compendium of collective nouns for birds''. Oxford: Bodleian Library. .
* Fanous, Samuel (2015). ''A Barrel of Monkeys: a compendium of collective nouns for animals''. Oxford: Bodleian Library. .
References
External links
Collective Nouns"The companyes of bestys & foules" (section from the ''Book of St Albans'')
{{Authority control
Nouns by type
Rhetoric
Grammatical number