nenena: (Default)
nenena ([personal profile] nenena) wrote2010-09-30 10:43 am
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English is awesome!

I just found out that the term for a group of shrews is a lament of shrews.

(Somebody in charge of the Oxford English Dictionary must really, really dislike crow and shrews.)

[identity profile] baines.livejournal.com 2010-09-30 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Some animals have really cool collective nouns.

Murder of crows
Parliament of rooks
Unkindness of ravens

For some reason, that seems to be where people decided to express a lot of imagination.

[identity profile] neocloud9.livejournal.com 2010-09-30 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Did you know a group of ravens is called an unkindness? How cool is that!
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[identity profile] animeshen.livejournal.com 2010-09-30 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
That is a fun fact. I wish I could use that in every day conversation but shrews don't really come up as a topic all that often.
I like this stuff, like a group of rhinos would be a "crash", and a group of unicorns is a "blessing"- I suppose it WOULD be a blessing if you somehow saw more than one unicorn.

[identity profile] chiikaboom.livejournal.com 2010-09-30 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
fuck ya the english language.

[identity profile] miss-breeziness.livejournal.com 2010-10-01 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Is it sad or awesome that I understood the crow reference (a murder of crows) right away when reading this? :)

[identity profile] lost-angelwings.livejournal.com 2010-10-01 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
when you run into a group of shrews they will make you lament running into them!

actually I like that... from now on a group of Amis is a rue of Amis... you will rue the day you ran into the Amis! >:3

[identity profile] silverystone.livejournal.com 2010-10-02 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
Oh dear, I just love english! Thanks for sharing, I didn't know about a lament of shrews before this post. XD

[identity profile] olgiebear.livejournal.com 2010-10-02 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm...I'm torn between the comments

- "Damn English, you scary."

0r

- "Oh English, you so crazy."

Never heard of unkindness of ravens.