Collective nouns have got to be one of the strangest and most interesting aspects of English. All of the words mean “group” and yet are specific to the particular thing you are grouping. Examples include a crash of rhinos, an exultation of larks, a knot of toads, and a pride of lions.
After staying at a bed and breakfast with a poster listing many of these animal nouns on dining room wall, my husband and I started to come up with ones for different groups of people. And because I like food so much, many of mine were food related.
Here’s some of what we came up with:
A draught of Germans.
A kebab of Turks.
A sauna of Finns.
A longboat of Norwegians.
A politeness of Canadians. (I love this one)
A pierogi of Poles.
A fiesta of Mexicans.
A crumpet of Brits.
A bento box of Japanese.
A kimchi of Koreans.
Erika Janik 