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stranger
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stranger
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I hope that someone out there may be able to help me.
Is there a word that describes a group of collective nouns or, in other words, is there a collective noun for collective nouns?
Meryl
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Carpal Tunnel
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If you're thinking about things like "a skein of geese," "a pride of lions,"an exultation of larks," etc, they're called 'terms of venery.' The sport originated with a bunch of old brandy-drinking, cigar-smoking gents sitting around in their little gentlemen's clubs reminiscing about the old days when they didn't break their horses backs while out chasing down the wily fox.
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Carpal Tunnel
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they're called 'terms of venery.'Terms of venery are a subset of collective nouns restricted to describing groups of animals. The asked for meta-collective noun probably doesn't fall into that category. FWIW, the TsC (tsuwm's count) for collective noun is 13 (general), 15 (special), link, and for terms of venery it's 1 (general), 2 (special), link. The first number is the number of Outlook results in the general category, and the second number includes specialty dictionaries, e.g., medicine, art. (Anyway, I added that to the mix, because Occam's razor be damned.) I suppose in these days of Inter-Web variability one should also add an access date, such as referenced in Wikipedia. For the record, the Dahilian semantico-typo-lexical constants for type-1 word, type-2 word, type-3 word are all 0 (zero). (Personally, I don't think tsuwm's method is complicated enough. The number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin ought to be taken into account as some sort of leavening number.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Dahilian
very good.
> The number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin ought to be taken into account as some sort of leavening number.
at the very yeast!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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jheem, I've been using the OL total, which is given in bold at the very top of the entry. link unfortunately, the eye is drawn to the General total, which is bolded and underlined. I'm afraid it's an inherent flaw in the system.  >For the record, the Dahilian semantico-typo-lexical constants for type-1 word, type-2 word, type-3 word are all 0 (zero). this is a sham e; dal should begin impetrating various on-line lexicographers to get his terms included. [drat, 'striket^hrough some text' no longer seems to work.]
Last edited by tsuwm; 12/09/2009 1:40 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've been using the O[ver]L[ook] total, which is given in bold at the very top of the entry. unfortunately, the eye is drawn to the General total, which is bolded and underlined.
I guess, at the very least, we shall have to agree (gentlemanly) to disagree (academically). I propose that my modification to tsuwm's system be called JhIc (pronounced jynx) for Jheem's Inconstant ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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at the very yeast!
Trub, at the very lees.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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old hand
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I guess, at the very least, we shall have to agree (gentlemanly) to disagree (academically). My ear wants to hear something different. Is gentlemanlyly a word? If not, what is the proper word? You are saying that you have to agree in a "gentlemanly" way, not a "gentleman" way. What is wrong with my thinking? I'm confusing myself! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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that's 'cuz gentlemanly can be either adjective or adverb, depending..
adv : in the manner of a gentleman he was sitting gentlemanly up in the ... taxi -- Saul Bellow
adj : having the character of or characteristic of a gentleman in nature, behavior, or appearance gentlemanly instincts
[W3]
more to the point, -ly can be either adj or adv suffix.
Last edited by tsuwm; 12/09/2009 4:09 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is gentlemanlyly a word?It is if you wish it so. But, I am confused by your confusion, Nowhere, nowhen, did I write gentlemanlyly, but gentlemanly. Are you referring to it qualifying way? In my ideolect, it is only an adjective. It does get a TsC of 19, or JhIc of 18/19, ( link).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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adv : in the manner of a gentleman he was sitting gentlemanly up in the ... taxi -- Saul Bellow
Not for me, though I like Saul's usage, but it's a shoehorned parsnipped word. Not all adverbs end in -ly and not all words which end in -ly are adverbs.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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old hand
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No, you did not use gentlemanlyly, I did! I was trying to say that gentlemanly, as you used it, didn't sound right to me, although it must be, if you used it that way. And it still doesn't. But I don't know what does, and gentlemanlyly was my "suggestion", although I am sure there is no such word. Don't bother with it; go on with what you were doing...
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Pooh-Bah
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I have seen lovelyly in print and my brain was fine with it but when I tried to read it out loud my ears objected. The same for gentlemanlyly.
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Carpal Tunnel
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parsnipped  Parsed and shortened?
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Carpal Tunnel
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And a parsnip in a pantry.
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old hand
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old hand
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old hand
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sicks cheeses sweating.
Last edited by zmjezhd; 12/12/2009 6:20 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ruh-roh. We slipped a cog. It's six geezers flaying.
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Carpal Tunnel
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It's six geezers flaying.
Everybody knows that se7en is pronounced six. Sheesh!
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ja ja. And te8eo is pronounced seven. Now who does the magnificent 7 ?
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Carpal Tunnel
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seven swans a swinging.
hey, swans are poultry. I should know.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nine raisins dancing. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quite a well risen raisin.
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