Ship of Fools: Bunches

Thread: Bunches Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027655

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

Did you know that whales come in bunches? According to the reporter on the radio bunches of whales were seen swimming in the ocean. The mind boggles. I have visions of whales tied together with ribbon and held aloft! It concerns me that the correct use of collective nouns is rapidly disappearing and being replaced with a lazy generic term of 'bunches' to cover many groups. In the past week I have heard: bunches of politicians, bunches of dogs, bunches of people and bunches of situations. When I was at school we only referred to bunches of carrots and flowers. Now what do you bunches of shipmates say?

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

So, are you calling us a "whole bunch of people"? A little girl I knew used to call her pigtails bunches.

Probably a bunch of other uses as well.

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

Sure Loth, but the numbers of things grouped in bunches is finite. If you listen to the news etc you will hear many people using 'bunches' when other correct terms are available. Maybe the correct terms are no longer taught in schools, so people are ignorant of them.

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :

Maybe it's because they're a bunch of ^NO CARRIER

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I agree that pod, pack and crowd ought to have been called into use. But it's hard to coin a non-tendentious collective for politicians - a graft? A bluster?

Whatever it may have been used back in the day, I think bunch now has a meaning of 'any ad hoc conglomeration of entities'.

Not but that I'm all in favour of Proper Collectives - if only so I can use one of my favourite jokes: What do you call two crows? Attempted murder.

Posted by Ann (# 94) on :

Meanwhile,the collective term for bankers is a wunch.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

"Pod" has recently taken on the strange meaning of "a cluster of office desks".

I agree that many of the specialized collective nouns seem to have fallen into desuetude. As has that word, too.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Here's a handy list we can all memorise, preparatory to working them into conversation.

Who knew alligators were a congregation? Or nuns a superfluity?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I did know that about the nuns - evidently coined by someone who didn't like them!

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ann:
Meanwhile,the collective term for bankers is a wunch.

There are many collective terms for bankers - most of which I shouldn't use here.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
... A little girl I knew used to call her pigtails bunches ...

Pigtails (in pairs) that weren't braided into plaits but secured with a band like a ponytail were called bunches when I was little and had long enough hair to have them.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Just watch the BBC weather forecast. Showers often come in "bands" which sometimes even "march" across the country from west to east (so where are the trombones?)

I'm sure there are lots of other populist collective meteorological terms.

By the wife, my wife years and years ago decided that the collective term for teachers was a "moan".

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger:

quote:
Originally posted by Ann:
Meanwhile,the collective term for bankers is a wunch.
There are many collective terms for bankers - most of which I shouldn't use here.

Why not go to Southwold Pier and use some of them as you "Bash the Bankers"?

(All right, I don't know if the game is still there, I haven't been for a year or two).

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0