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stranger
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What is the term for collective nouns such as a "skulk" of foxes or a "murder" of crows?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Terms of venary, or summat like that.
A venary of nouns?
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addict
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addict
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Uh, it is summat like venary - it's venery, from an old word for "hunting". Looks a lot like it'd come from the same root as venereal (from a different sort of hunting...), but it doesn't.
Best modern tome on the subject (terms of venery, not things venereal) is An Exaltation of Larks. Great stuff.
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addict
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addict
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At the risk of being obvious (and perhaps a little bit cheeky)  , um, wouldn't the term be "Collective Nouns"? (Or am I missing the point? ... Quite possible.) Anyway, I really just popped in to say WELCOME  to the Board, and thanks for posting your question. You've already got people's minds ticking over... good for you, rdeib!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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And anybody who know anything about foxes knows they may skulk, but they do not collect. That term was probably hatched by some fashionable idiot in a parlor game a couple hundred years ago.
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old hand
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old hand
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Ummm... I thunk that garbage can wuz a collective noun. 
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addict
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A venary of nouns?A commune of collective nouns?
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old hand
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old hand
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it's venery, from an old word for "hunting". Looks a lot like it'd come from the
same root as venereal (from a different sort of hunting...), but it doesn't. Was not Diana goddess of the hunt, AND goddess of the um, er, "hunt" with the "h" replaced by a "c?" 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Looks a lot like it'd come from the same root as venereal (from a different sort of hunting...), but it doesn't.This is not quite a cleave/cleave situation. They do indeed come from the same root if you go back far enough, at least according to the AHD. http://www.bartleby.com/61/22/V0052200.htmlhttp://www.bartleby.com/61/23/V0052300.htmlThey diverged pretty quickly.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
Was not Diana goddess of the hunt, AND goddess of the um, er, "hunt" with the "h" replaced by a "c?"
Diana was a virgin goddess. Venereal comes from the name of her niece, Venus.
Bingley
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