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You are here: Home / Just For Fun / Collective Drinking Nouns

Collective Drinking Nouns

January 26, 2013 By Jay Brooks

collective
Hat tip to Rob DeNunzio for this one, who used to write the beer blog Pfiff!, but has taken some time off since his second child Leo was born, almost three years ago. Happily, he knows me well enough to know that I would love this list of Collective Nouns. In case you were absent that day from school, or have the memory of Ten-second Tom (see 50 First Dates), a collective noun is “the name of a number (or collection) of people or things taken together and spoken of as one whole.” Well-known examples include a “pride of lions,” a “murder of crows” or a “school of fish.” When you think of collective nouns, it seems that most of them have to do with animals, though that’s not necessarily the only ones. There are even a few beer- or drink-related ones, such as a “round of drinks,” I was thrilled to learn. I haven’t run into these before but will be sure to add them to my quiver of arrows (see, there’s another one) for writing about beer.

  • A promise of barmen.
  • A feast of brewers.

And when my colleagues and I get together, we become a “worship of writers.” If only.

At the bottom of the list they also suggest some that may not have caught on yet, such as a “bevy of alcoholics.” I’m not so sure about that one.

In doing some further searching, other suggestions have been made, such as a “case of beer” or a “keg of beer,” but those don’t seem like collective nouns as I understand the definition. Those are simply packages that denote size, though those are tame compared to the silly beer, beers and brewers suggestions at all-sorts, a linguistic experiment.

Here’s another list of The Collective Nouns, with ones that people of submitted, a few of which are truly inspired. And Wikipedia has a list, too.

Did I miss any? Any you can think of?

Filed Under: Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Language



Comments

  1. beerman49 says

    January 29, 2013 at 5:04 am

    In the late 70’s, I acquired a small book titled “An Exaltation of Larks” (the 1st of the non-dictionary word-related reference books I have – most of the others are etymology-oriented). What’s in it pales compared to the lists on the links Jay’s posted. Language evolves with imagination, so I’ll add one: a bung of brewers (or beer geeks).

  2. Tonyc says

    February 1, 2013 at 10:42 am

    So what would a collection of collective nouns be, a nag of nouns?

  3. beerman49 says

    May 28, 2013 at 1:38 am

    Reviewing this 4 months later – a collection of collective nouns would have to be a “collective” of collective( noun)s

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