A Business of Ferrets and Shrewdness of Apes - July 26 2025

 

A Business of Ferrets and Shrewdness of Apes

July 26 2026



I just learned

that a grouping of ladybugs

is called a loveliness.

Collective nouns like these

are found poetry;

distilled, wistful, and perceptive, 

even if sometimes

a little flowery.

So much

in a single word.

A murder of jet black crows,

cawing raucously

as they glare down from the trees

with sharpened beaks and grasping claws

and keenly piercing eyes.

An exaltation of larks,

erupting into the sky

in a sudden flutter of wings.

I knew exalt meant to praise,

but not that it was Latin

for rising up.

A leap of leopards

kindle of kittens

mischief of mice.

The anonymous namers

must love alliteration 

as much as me.

Who knew

English could be so playful?

Not Ms. McGregor, my grade 8 teacher

who littered my essays

with red exclamations and underlines.

After all, there were rules, grammar

and correct usage.

Her praise was stern,

as if reading me

Shakespeare would be turning in his grave.

Yet didn't he write a rose by any other name

would smell as sweet?

And didn’t we both admire Leonard Cohen,

who must have thought perfection over-rated 

when he penned

there is a crack, a crack in everything 

that’s how the light gets in.

And indeed, what is in a name?

A stanza of poets

an anthology?

Or perhaps a pretension of poets

a discontent?

So much, it would seem

in a single word

if you mine this opulent language

with a twinkle in your eye

acuity of mind

and indifference to the rules.

Actually, I think it was English with Ms. McGregor in middle school where I not only began to really love writing, but gained the confidence to pursue it. So I recall her fondly. Almost 60 years later I still remember being in a small group with her parsing Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne, being introduced to Ferlinghetti, and being pushed to do better. 

Collective nouns are poetry: language, compressed and distilled. In this case, to a single word. 

Collective nouns aren’t set in stone: sometimes, there are more than one; there is no central registry; and American English can use a different one than they do across the pond. Just as we say truck and they say lorry, or our car hood is their bonnet, our elevator their lift.

So make up your own. After all, in a language in which spelling often seems arbitrary, why concern yourself with rules?

The following is lifted from mentalfloss.com. I remember being introduced to An Exaltation of Larks (https://www.amazon.ca/Exaltation-Larks-Ultimate-James-Lipton/dp/0140170960s) a early as grade school, and the excitement I felt that the language could contain such richness and creativity. Like smack of jellyfish. Perfect!

Some have achieved widespread currency and acceptance, like a “flight of stairs,” “a board of trustees,” and a “school of fish.” Others, like a “murder of crows,” barely cling on. However, a handful of obscure phrases have made a comeback, thanks to James Lipton’s wonderful compendium of collective nouns, An Exaltation of Larks,Lipton’s book that you should add to your repertoire.

1. Business of Ferrets

2. Labor of Moles

3. Mustering of Storks

4. Shrewdness of Apes

5. Gam of Whales

6. Smack of Jellyfish

7. Host of Angels

8. Fusillade of Bullets

9. Baptism of Fire

10. Quiver of Arrows

11. Tissue of lies