"How does one refer, for instance, to a group of writers or critics?"
Michael Quinion in his brief "On the history of collective nouns" says that "[t]he first collection in English is The Book of St Albans of 1486 . . . ."
For critics, James Lipton in his book An Exaltation of Larks suggests it should be "a shrivel of critics."
By the way, Mr Lipton says that the collective noun "a worship of writers" is "[a] reference to the reverence shown by writers to their patrons, and not, alas, vice versa. In his Dictionary, Dr. Johnson defines patron as 'commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.'"
A worship of writers wrocks wonderfully, regardless of what the Divine Doc Johnson considers a wretch of writers to be. Much better than a wank of writers, a wrath of writers, or a wriggle of writers, to mention a few I've heard over the y/ears.
Then, there's a clutch of critics, a crush of critics, a cache of critics, a crony of critics and, especially in Canada, a cadre of critics.
Sadly, my raft of roofers won't be attending to *the* problem since the skies are going to open and hydro-electricity will prolly disappear from the deluge of downpours since the fistful of forecasters are callin' for a hard-rain that's gonna be fallin' . . . and, natch, where I live, it's always harder because of the lake of lightnings right over there . . .
"How does one refer, for instance, to a group of writers or critics?"
ReplyDeleteMichael Quinion in his brief "On the history of collective nouns" says that "[t]he first collection in English is The Book of St Albans of 1486 . . . ."
And number of people quote this collective noun for writers from that book: "a worship of writers."
For critics, James Lipton in his book An Exaltation of Larks suggests it should be "a shrivel of critics."
By the way, Mr Lipton says that the collective noun "a worship of writers" is "[a] reference to the reverence shown by writers to their patrons, and not, alas, vice versa. In his Dictionary, Dr. Johnson defines patron as 'commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.'"
A worship of writers wrocks wonderfully, regardless of what the Divine Doc Johnson considers a wretch of writers to be. Much better than a wank of writers, a wrath of writers, or a wriggle of writers, to mention a few I've heard over the y/ears.
ReplyDeleteThen, there's a clutch of critics, a crush of critics, a cache of critics, a crony of critics and, especially in Canada, a cadre of critics.
Sadly, my raft of roofers won't be attending to *the* problem since the skies are going to open and hydro-electricity will prolly disappear from the deluge of downpours since the fistful of forecasters are callin' for a hard-rain that's gonna be fallin' . . . and, natch, where I live, it's always harder because of the lake of lightnings right over there . . .