esk@wucs.UUCP (Eric Kaylor) (05/07/85)
[eet thees, you feelthy consumer of lines!] There's a particular part of the English language called the collective noun; these are nouns used to describe a group of objects, generally animals. Some examples are a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks, and a pride of lions. Well, I got to thinking one night - what about collective nouns for groups of human beings? I got a few people together and this is some of what we came up with (with apologies to all of the offended groups...) Note that some of these need to be read aloud (or mispronounced). Enjoy the PUNishment! An antibody of spiritualists An assemblage of (Real) Programmers A baffle of bureaucrats A bank of Republicans A battery of electricians A brace of orthodontists A brace of orthodontists A charge of shoppers A clique of tap dancers A cloud of meteorologists A clutch of batters A collection of beggars A column of journalists A corps of morticians (we're particularly fond of this one) A cycle of launderers (?) A deck of VAXen A dole of Socialists A dump of computer scientists A fraction of chemists A fracture of break-dancers A gawk of rock groupies A gestalt of therapists A goggle of optometrists A gossip of high-school girls A gross of Saga workers A group of mathematicians A guilt of liberals A hassle of police officers An indictment of aldermen An induction of electrical engineers An instance of existentialists A levity of comedians A lip of salesmen A magnitude of astronomers A mass of clergy A match of arsonists A maze of magicians A mesh of structural engineers A mess of janitors A morarity of oriental chemists ( onry a smarr joke... :-) A node of geologists An outlet of electricians An outrage of Student Life editorialists A pac of pressure groups A panel of cartoonists A pile of nuclear engineers A pile of proctologists (ouch...) A pilfer of politicians A punt of poodle owners (wishful thinking...) A purge of [ab]users A relation of database administrators A set of logicians (groan... they only get worse...) A sheaf of geometers A slew of murderers A slice of golfers A stench of sanitation engineers A streak of window cleaners A study of premeds A swagger of jocks A take of actors A take of filmmakers A tease of hairdressers A tensor of theoretical physicists A transit of surveyors A vector of physicists A whine of Democrats That's what we have so far - if you feel inclined to contribute, please send additions to jdz6539@wucec1 or ...ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!jdz6539. If you're merely amused, send mail also - I just LOVE mail. Thanks (and blame) go to the following people at Wash U - Steve Swope Kevin Gartz Jim Washek Brad Payne Simon Huang Philip Sowah Georg Jander Jason Gutenschwager Jennifer Hisrich Bryan Ewbank John Cuthbertson -- Jason Zions ...ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!jdz6539 Drink Guinness - the stout with roughage...