Posted in General, GrammarGarnish (wordplay), Vocabulary Builders, tagged accountants, agents, An Exaltation of Larks, authority, authors, board, book, bungee, capsule, carpenters, cell, chip, circuit, class, club, clue, collective, collectives, composition, cord, cue, customer, cut, deck, designers, detectives, drivers, engineers, English, fun, gang, geek, gift, golfers, grammar, hairdressers, inmates, James Lipton, jumpers, language, ledger, marines, menders, mess, noun, oneupsmen, package, pad, patch, pharmacists, planners, players, pool, question, quota, sales reps, schedule, screenwriters, scribes, service, set, stenographers, string, tablet, The Venereal Game, trainers, twitter, typists, UPS, usage, vocabulary, words, wrappers, writing on June 8, 2009|
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And we wondered what our blog topic would be today. It never seems to fail … something interesting comes up.
Today, on Twitter, we got the question (via a follower’s tweet):
“Does anyone know what the collective for ‘authors’ is? Grammar geeks, I need you!”
This sent us running for our copy of the fabulous book: “An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game” by James Lipton, which is, by most measures, the authority on collectives. Once we turned the cover, we were, once again, in deep; off and running, figuratively, in our own little collective world.
This book is delightful. We highly recommend it for those who enjoy a good play of words. And, these entries can be put to practical use too.
As a tribute to the great Dr. Lipton, we offer some additions to this ever-growing list of collectives. We begin with one that we invented because we did not find the answer to today’s original question …
A composition of authors.
And so, here goes:
- A schedule of planners.
- A class of trainers.
- A quota of sales reps.
- A pool of typists.
- A service of customer agents.
- A circuit of engineers.
- A board of chip designers.
- A club of golfers.
- A string of gift wrappers.
- A cut of hairdressers.
- A cell of inmates.
- A cord of bungee jumpers.
- A package of UPS drivers.
- A cue of pool players.
- A clue of detectives.
- A deck of carpenters.
- A pad of stenographers.
- A capsule of pharmacists.
- A tablet of scribes.
- A mess of marines.
- A gang of oneupsmen.
- A ledger of accountants.
- A set of screenwriters.
- A patch of menders.
- A pack of hikers.
- A register of cashiers.
- A league of SCUBA divers.
Enjoy, and feel free to add your own.
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Grammar Police a.k.a. GrammarCops 