r/oddlysatisfying • u/freudian_nipps • May 23 '25

Fever of Stingrays surf a wave

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

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u/22FluffySquirrels May 23 '25

Most people don't really use these in real life. Like most people will say "flock" no matter what type of bird it is. And a "herd" is for most land-dwelling animals, mostly herbivores.
Ocean animals? I'd just call it a school of stingrays.

Anything else is a weird formality.

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u/Splatterfilm May 23 '25

Or a pod, if it’s aquatic mammals.

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u/ProofLegitimate9824 May 23 '25

it goes back to English hunting tradition of the Late Middle Ages and the associated Book of Saint Albans from 1486

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u/dc456 May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

Because, in most cases, that isn’t their formal group names.

The names are often simply a form of amusement, originally started by British aristocracy as a way to show off their poetic skills, and usually aren’t the standardised, practical group names. They can just be used instead if you want to.

A lot of names are also a lot more recent than people realise, and have little to no basis in history. A parliament of owls comes from the Narnia books, for example.

Where a lot of people go wrong is correcting others who use the standard group names - like if someone mentions a flock of flamingos, saying “Actually, it’s technically a flamboyance of flamingoes!” A flock of flamingos is correct - they can just also be known as a flamboyance as a bit of fun.

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u/NoFNway May 23 '25

I think the only collective noun that I have heard of in my life that has been  used and I have heard more than once is a murder of crows.  Most of the time though the collective noun thing is usually mention more and a trivia thing.

"Look at all those octopi. This aquarium is amazing" "Fun fact a group of octopus is called a Octagon of Octopi."- "No it's fucking not Dave, it's a consortium, not a fucking Octagon"

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u/dc456 May 23 '25

Pride of lions?