The English language owes a debt of gratitude of Dame Juliana Berners.  She was born circa 1388 and is believed to have been the prioress of a nunnery near St. Albans, Hertforshire, England.  Her major contribution to literature is  The Boke of St. Albans,  a treatise on hawking, hunting and heraldry first published in 1486

Newby, Peter

English

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140 AN ASSEMBLAGE OF NOUNSAFTERBERNERS: PETER NEWBY Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England The English language owes a debt of grati tude to Dame Juliana Berners. She was born circa 1388 and is believed to have been the prioress of a nunnery near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Her major contribution to literature is The Boke of St. Albans, a treatise on hawking, hunting and heraldry first published in 1486. The Boke has been in continuous print ever since and once enjoyed sucha popularity that the distinguished editor of an edi­tion of 1810 stated that, in the previous centuries, "its circulation vied with and perhaps exceeded every other contemporary produc­tion of the press of lesser eminence than Holy Writ". The Boke' s latest edition, a facsimile of the original, was published inNew York in 1969. One of the delights of the Boke is its compilation of nouns of assemblage, and though other writers of the period also noted these collective nouns, it is to the Dame we are principally indebted. Some traditional terms are extremely ancient. A swarm of bees, for example, dates back to circa 725 AD. Other traditional terms are comparatively new. Whilst a grist of bees sounds both British and archaic, it is a 19th-century American term and also is fea­tured in contemporary American wit as "a grist of rain". Some are found only in dialect. Hirsel, used by the Scots for virtually ev­erything, is one such ancient term. Alliteration, onomatopoeia or a characteristic inherent in the object being described is the basis of a collective noun, and has been true since compilations began in the 15th century. The many books on courtly behaviour written at that time stressed the impor­tdnce of a knowledge of the correct term, as this was a sign of culture and good breeding. Even today, unless irony is intended, it is a mark of good grammar. The following sample of collective nouns are all found in the Boke, many first recorded by Dame Juliana. Dates prior to 1486 note earlier publication. A question-mark indicates the meaning is unclear to me. BERNERS A ',hrewdness of apes (1452) A pace of asses A cete of badgers (the Boke called them graies "grays") A congregation of birds\LiSed of plovers in both the Boke and 1430) A sounder of boars (1410, lL20; preceded by the Dame I s injunction that 12 wild swine make a sounder and 20 a great sounder) e h o s k d a f' I E c i f t a a c 141 )UNS luliana e been .gland. llbans, hed in d once n edi­hUon >roduc­Boke's inlifew I.ns of these ebted. bees, terms British is fea­,me are lly ev­n the d has many impor­sign of ended, in the to 1486 . eaning 1430) nction A leash of bucks (c .1330, as a set of three creatures) A d u1e of doves A school of fish (c.1400, c.1440) A skulk of foxes (c.1450, skulk applied to freris (friars?), foxys and thewys "?") A bevy of girls (c. 1430, c.1470; the Dame applied it to ladies, qua i 1san d roe s ) A herd of cattle (c .1000; the Dame used it for harlots) A brood of hens (c.l000, 1250, c.1385) A mute of hounds (c.1400) A kindle of kittens (c.1220; note that a clowder of cats is 1801) A leap of leopards A pride of lions A suit of mallards A watch of nightingales (c.1452) A covey of partridges (1440) A muster of peac0cks (c.1470) A nye of pheasants (c.1470) An unkindness of ravens (c .1452) A building of rooks (c.1470) A flight of swallows (c. 1250, applied to various birds and insects) A d rift of swine (tame swine as opposed to wild boars) A spring of teal (c.1450, c.1470) A litter of whelps A rout of wolves (c.1275) A fall of woodcock (c.1430) * * * Many collective nouns have arisen since the Boke was first pub­lished. An excellent list of those of serious intent is found, for example, in Brewer I s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. Comic variations have also occurred in large number. There is even a third type of which there is but one delightful example: a conglobulation of swallows. This is not an official collective noun, but as its only known application is that of a noun of assemblage, (t cannot be den ied. Conglobulation is found, undefined, in Chambers English Diction­ary. It also carries the word conglobulate. That same verb is also found in both the complete Oxford English Dictionary and Webster I s International, though neither mentions the noun. Fortunately, The Encyclopedia of the Animal World provides the only sense that I can trace of a specific meaning of the noun conglobulation, which it applies to a remarkable and mythical assembly of swallows. But first the verb and its meaning as given in the OED. It defines the very as meaning "to collect into a rounded or compact mass", and quotes Dr. Johnson A number of them [swallows] conglobulate together and then all of a heap throw themselves under water and it is in precisely this sense that the Encyclopedia uses the noun conglobulation. In Dr. Johnson's day, there was a widely-held be­lief that swallows spent the winter asleep at the bottom of ponds. 142 A contemporary of his once tested this theory by tying dyed threads to the legs of swallows. When, the following spring, the dye had obviously failed to wash out, he began to doubt the veracity of that belief. A conglobulation of swallows, therefore, is a compacted flock throwing themselves under water for the purposes of hiberna­tion! In honor of Dame Juliana, I introduce the concept ners. These are collective nouns, of both serious and that share one common of that to which it rein three groups: factor: lates. For each cocollective nvenience, noun I have is (a) the obvious of afterber­comic intent, an anagram set them out (b) those requiring a definition of either the noun or the collect­ive	 noun (c)	 the "gaggle" variety of collective nouns: those, like a of geese, where the collective noun was specifically for that purpose a sounder of undoers an atmosphere of metaphores a triteness of interests a tiredness of residents a shower of whores a niceness of incenses an aridness of sardines an amassing of gas mains a cluster of cutlers a soupr;on of coupon s a crescendo of a strea ming of a measuring of a sensation of a n as se rtion of a greatness of a mischance of a pes aunt (weight) conceders emigrants geraniums Estonians senorita s sergeants mechanics of an arshine (length) of a madness of desma ns a melange of gleemen an ecstasy of cytases a ripeness of crepsins an arsenal of Lanares a clea rness of cleansers a sortment _of a flushing of a pertness of a pressure of a love-nest of a dourness of a rudeness of torme.nts lungfish serpents perusers novelets sounders end users an underset of dentures a piecrust of pictures a spectrum of crumpets a bluster of butlers a unison of unions a tissue of suites a debris of brides a sample of maples gaggle coined peanuts hernias ( insectivores of the mole fa mi ly, not desmen) (singers or minstrels) (digestive enzymes) (enzymes of the stomach) (falcons) a slough (dead skin) of ghouls a morsel of morels (cherries) a sqwere of qweers (a squire of choirs) a sestet of testes (a ppl ica ble to a life form from another galaxy) a series of reises (journeys) a greest (grist) of egrets a ferkin 0 f e rfk i n (c a tt Ie) a secretness of Centresses (female leaders of the Fenian movement) a deposit of podites (crab's legs) a pertusion (punching) of eruptions an in acre asIa a tra a lea a pIe a pa~ a lac a six a fre­a spr a bri a tru a gor a res a str an aT an ec an al Gaggl nouns a a a ( a a ( Of they sa ti s1 scure and, is "a collec 143 ber­ent, ~ ram out ect­ggle 'ined en) t) an inertness of tennisers (players of real tennis) a cresset (container) of secrets a slaister (filthy mess) of realists a travoise (sledge) of votaries a leasting (atom) of genitals a pleasure of serpulae (wormshells) a pa stiche of hepatic s (hverworts) a laciness of sanicles (a type of flower) a sixteen of extines (pollen grains) a fre-scad:e (shaded pathway) of red faces a sprinkle of plinkers (random target shooters) a brisance (explosive effect) of carbines a trussel (bundle) of results a gorsedd (assembly) of dodgers a residence of deceniers (heads of households) a struggle of gurglets (tiny whi rlpools) an ampleness of ensamples (practical warnings) an ec1osion (hatching) of colonies an appetiser of piperates (salts of pepper) Gaggle-type afterburners fall into nouns and assumption-of-noun-status a pride 1 s-nest of presidents a fib-fails of bailiffs two distinct categories, nonce by an adjective: a dire-loss of soldiers an arch-mine of chairmen a dust-nest of a treasoning of a dishonest of Of the above, students Argentinos hedonists the easiest a sob-ship of a slawping of a mensural of to create are the bishops lapwings numerals nonce nouns, and they possess the greatest potential for witty construction. The least sa tisfactory from the standpoint of the genera 1 reader are the ob­scure ones requiring an explanation. The best are the obvious, and, if you wish to add your own constructions to what I trust is " a relish of hirsel", then it will be interesting to see what the collective readership of Word Ways can produce. 

Afterberners: An Assemblage of Nouns

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Afterberners: An Assemblage of Nouns

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