venta

I've occasionally wondered who originally had the job of making up collective nouns (largely because if there is a post of Collective-nounsmith to the Queen, I want it).

The conversation came up today at work, and reminded me to do a little googling. And I've found a short article, which interested me, so I thought I'd share it.

It seems that a fifteenth century treatise called The Book of St Albans is largely to blame. Disappointingly, this article doesn't use the subtitle found elsewhere: Treatyse Perteynynge to Hawkynge, Huntynge and Coote Armiris. Any book with that many Ys in the title is fine by me.

On the history of collective nouns.

If anyone knows where to find out more about which terms were ever used, and which were poetic fancies, I'd be intrigued. There are a couple of books on collective nouns on the market that I've seen, but they're mostly just lists rather than information on origins or usage.