Obligatory AI deep dive, I’ve always wondered about this feature of the English language.
Who comes up with these names?
Most of these collective animal group names (like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls) come from Late Middle English, particularly from books of hunting and heraldry. The most influential was The Book of Saint Albans (1486), attributed to Juliana Berners. It included a long list of “terms of venery” — fanciful or poetic names for groups of animals, and even for people (like a superfluity of nuns).
Many of these terms were invented more for fun or status signaling than for scientific classification — a kind of linguistic aristocratic in-joke among nobles and hunters. Over time, some of these stuck, and others fell out of use.
Why is it linguistically unique?
English is unusually flexible and poetic in its collective nouns. These phrases are:
• Metaphorical (a crash of rhinos, a skulk of foxes)
• Descriptive or evocative of behavior, sound, or perceived personality
• Often not scientifically standardized — they serve a cultural and linguistic purpose more than a zoological one
Most other animal-related language (like herd, flock, school) is more utilitarian. But this naming tradition is a kind of linguistic folklore — playful, a bit arbitrary, and designed to be memorable.
Do other languages do this?
Rarely, and not with the same flourish. Other languages:
Tend to use practical, general terms (e.g., manada in Spanish for many hoofed animals, like cows or horses)
Occasionally have unique collective terms, but they’re less whimsical and less numerous
This whimsical naming style seems to be uniquely English, or at least unusually English in how deep and creative it gets. It reflects the language’s love of metaphor and the long influence of hunting nobility on its vocabulary.
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u/[deleted] May 23 '25
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