We have two fun Friday features for you today. First up, Real
Cat Webster introduces some new (old) words for our big-cat cousins. And then
it’s on to Friendly Fill-Ins.
Words with Webster
Last week, we talked about clowder, a term for a group of cats—a collective noun, in other
words. Another collective noun for cats is glaring.
Today, I thought it would be fun to learn collective nouns for some of our wild
cousins. Good luck finding most of these definitions in your dictionary. They
were apparently dreamed up in the 15th century, when hunters really liked to
have specific terms for, well, everything. But according to Oxford Dictionaries, some of these terms may not have actually been used;
they were just for fun.
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| Image credit: Adobe Stock. |
Anyway, here we go:
A leap or lepe of leopards.*
A pride or sawt of lions.
An ambush or streak of tigers.
*We actually found this one in the Oxford English Dictionary, which says leap is an “alleged” name for
a group of leopards. The word did appear in The
Book of St. Albans in 1486: “A Lepe of Lebardis.”
(Sources: “What
Do You Call a Group of…?” Oxford Living Dictionaries; Oxford English Dictionary; “List of English Terms of
Venery, by Animal,” Wikipedia;
“What Is a Group of Cheetahs Called?” Reference.com.)
Friendly Fill-Ins
And now to Friendly Fill-Ins. from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of
the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by old SoLT, are from
Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered this week by Real Cat
Paisley, are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.
1. I hope Who Do You Think You Are gets renewed for another season. I enjoy seeing people learn about their origins. It makes me wish I had more time to work on family history though.
2. My first crush was on my seventh-grade math teacher. I also loved math for exactly one school year!
Real Cat Paisley’s answers
3. Our family’s dog usually makes me irritated. Because dogs are irritating.
4. If I were a super-hero, I would be… Hang on, I’m already a superhero! I’m Tortie Troublemaker!
A coalition of cheetahs sounds impressive. Thank you both for your great answers. I didn't realize that show was still on, I need to check it out. That is funny that you only liked Math that one year. And yes, Paisley you are a super-hero and dogs are irritating with all that sniffing and eating from the litter box. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteA glaring?
ReplyDeleteI'd say its more of a stinkeye.
Tortie troublemakers are the best! Wow. I'd never heard the terms coalition, leap, or ambush in describing a group of animals before ... that's really neat!
ReplyDeleteThose are good names for groups. We wonder how they were thought up. Great fill-ins! We too hope Who Do You Think You Are goes on and on. It just started again here last Sunday. We could watch that show forever and never get tired of it.
ReplyDeleteThat's the very best kind of superhero to be, Paisley! Cool words...I've heard pride of lions before but that's the only one I knew.
ReplyDeleteWho Do You Think You Are? is a great show! I don't generally like television, but I love, love family history...not just for my own family, either. I find it fascinating to learn where we all fit into the history of this world and how connected we all truly are. It is wonderful. I have an app on my phone that is called We're Related (from Ancestry.com) and it shows which famous people I am connected to. Some I already knew about, like Elvis and Thomas Jefferson, but others, I had no clue of any possible connections. It could tell me which of my Facebook friends are potential relatives, too, if any of them had Ancestry subscriptions. It isn't as cool at the show, but it is still a lot of fun. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat is something that you could reduce the time spent on so that you could devote more time to your family history? Start where you are. Record what you know. At least those that come after you will have that much. We all have a tendency to put this sort of thing off until "tomorrow"...but maybe we won't have that tomorrow. What we keep inside of us dies with us and is lost forever. It is our responsibility, to the best of our ability, to make sure that our ancestors' stories and our own are remembered. You can do this! Even if you take only five minutes a day to write about your first day at school, first date, first job, whatever, and the same for other relatives that you know this stuff about or can find out, that is better than nothing and will mean so much to someone down the line.
I need to be better about doing this myself, I know. There are programs out there that can help you think of topics to write about. I downloaded one awhile back called Personal Historian 2. It has been great at prompting memories for me. We all just need to slow down for 5 minutes a day and write it down so that others have access to these memories, too.
Sorry to ramble on about this. Genealogy and family history are some of my biggest passions. :)
Have a blessed weekend!
We have watched Who Do You Think You Are on Roku. It is a fun show.
ReplyDeleteI love human interest stories like "Who Do You Think You Are?". I wish I could learn more about my roots, too. I remember my 7th grade Math teacher, but not like that! Grizelda is not a dog fancier either. Aren't all torties troublemakers? HUGS!
ReplyDeleteTortie Troublemaker is meowvolous! Mom enjoys that TV show as well. She often forgets to watch or record though. She also liked the crush on your math teacher. She started thinking if she'd ever had a crush on one of her teachers and can't think of one. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo and Cooper Murphy
ReplyDelete