Collective nouns/nouns of assemblage:
A gaggle of geese
A colony of ants
A shrewdness of apes
A pace/herd of donkeys
A troop/congress of baboons
A culture of bacteria
A cete of badgers
A shoal of bass
A colony of bats
A sleuth/sloth of bears
A colony of beavers
A swarm/hive/grist of bees
A flock/flight/volery/congregation of birds
A sounder of boars
A brace/clash of bucks
A herd or obstinacy of buffalos
A wake of buzzards
A flock of camels
A clutter/clowder/nuisance of cats
An army of caterpillars
A herd/drove of cattle
A brood/peep of chicken
A clutch or chattering of chicks
A bed of clams
An intrusion of cockroaches
A quiver of cobras
A rag of colts
A kine of cows
A band of coyotes
A sedge/siege of cranes
A float of crocodiles
A murder of crows
A litter of cubs
A cowardice of curs
A herd of curlews
A herd of deer
A pack of dogs
A dule or piteousness or cote of doves
A weyr or flight of dragons
A brace/paddling/team of ducks
A herd of elephants
A gang of elk
A mob of emus
A cast of falcons
A business/cast/fesnyng of ferrets
A charm of finches
A shoal/school/run/catch/haul of fish
A swarm or a business of flies
A skulk/leash of foxes
An army of frogs
A flock/gaggle or skein(in flight) of geese
A tower of giraffes
A cloud or horde of gnats
An implausibility of gnu
A herd/tribe/trip of goats
A charm of goldfinches
A troubling or glint of goldfish
A colony of gulls
A band of gorillas
A leash of greyhound
A covey of grouse
A down/husk of hare
A cast or kettle or aerie of hawks
A brood of hens
A hedge or sedge of heron
A bloat of hippopotamus
A drift or parcel of hog
A team/pair/harras of horses
A pack/mute or cry of hounds
A smack of jellyfish
A kindle or litter of kittens
An exultation or ascension of larks
A leap of leopards
A pride of lions
A plague of locusts
A tiding/gulp/murder/charm of magpies
A sord of mallard
A stud of mares
A richness of martens
A mischief of mice
A labour of moles
A troop of monkeys
A barren or span of mules
A romp of otters
A parliament of owls
A yoke/drove/team of oxen
A bed of oysters
A company of parrots
A covey of partridge
A muster/ostentation or pride of peacocks
A litter of peep
A parcel/huddle/colonies of penguins
A nest/nide/bouquet of pheasants
A litter of pigs
A flock or flight of pigeons
A string of ponies
A pod of porpoises
A covey/bevy of quail
A nest of rabbits
A pack or swarm of rats
A rhumba of rattlesnakes
An unkindness or storytelling of ravens
A crash or herd of rhino
A bevy of roebuck
A clamour/building of ravens
A family of sardines
A herd/pod of seal
A drove/flock of sheep
A nest of snakes
A host of sparrows
A dray or scurry of squirrels
A murmuration of starlings
A muster or mustering of storks
A flight of sparrows
A bevy/herd/lamentation/wedge of swans
A flock of swifts
A bale of turtles
A sounder or drift of swine
A swift or ambush of tigers
A knot of toads
A hover of trout
A rafter of turkeys
A pitying or dule of turtledoves
A nest of vipers
A pod of walrus
A school/gam/pod of whales
A pack/route of wolves
A descent of woodpeckers
A herd/zeal/dazzle of zebras
A shiver of shark
A warren of wombats
A labour of moles
A clan of hyenas
A band/ scold/party of jays
A deceit of lapwings
A watch of nightingales
A gaze or nursery of raccoons
A clamour/building of rooks
A wisp/walk of snipes
A sneak of weasles
A prickle of hedgehogs
A fall of woodcocks
A convocation of eagles
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Words
Courtesy of a conversation with the clever Mr Flashlight:-
Word:
Antinomy:
1 : a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles
2 : a fundamental and apparently unresolvable conflict or contradiction(MW)
1.opposition between one law, principle, rule, etc., and another.
2. Philosophy. a contradiction between two statements, both apparently obtained by correct reasoning. (dictionary.com based on the Random House Dictionary)
Etymology: Latin --> "antinomia" contradiction between laws
Word:
Antinomy:
1 : a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles
2 : a fundamental and apparently unresolvable conflict or contradiction
1.opposition between one law, principle, rule, etc., and another.
2. Philosophy. a contradiction between two statements, both apparently obtained by correct reasoning. (dictionary.com based on the Random House Dictionary)
Etymology: Latin --> "antinomia" contradiction between laws
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Come thou fount of every blessing
From the 2nd verse:-
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood"
I wondered what Ebenezer meant and looked it up:-
Meaning: Stone of Help
Etymology: Combination of the Hebrew word for stone is “even” and the Hebrew word for help “Haazer”
"So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths[a] from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths,[b] and served the LORD only. And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.”So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer,[c] saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” (1 Sam 7:7-12)
Context:
This was during and/or just after (not sure which) a time when the Israelites had strayed from God, paying homage to other gods such as Baal and Ashtoreth (god of storm/lightning and goddess of fertility). (Cf Numbers 24 and 25) Israel (the nation state) had suffered a crushing defeat in the hands of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 4:1). After the Israelites repented before God for their straying, and God granted them victory over the Philistines, Samuel set up a stone as a marker and named it the stone of help. The site then became called “Ebenezer”.
(Disclaimer: this is totally the cliff notes version of the context,historically and geographically but all I really set out to do was lookup the meaning of the word.)
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood"
I wondered what Ebenezer meant and looked it up:-
Meaning: Stone of Help
Etymology: Combination of the Hebrew word for stone is “even” and the Hebrew word for help “Haazer”
"So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths[a] from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths,[b] and served the LORD only. And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.”So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer,[c] saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” (1 Sam 7:7-12)
Context:
This was during and/or just after (not sure which) a time when the Israelites had strayed from God, paying homage to other gods such as Baal and Ashtoreth (god of storm/lightning and goddess of fertility). (Cf Numbers 24 and 25) Israel (the nation state) had suffered a crushing defeat in the hands of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 4:1). After the Israelites repented before God for their straying, and God granted them victory over the Philistines, Samuel set up a stone as a marker and named it the stone of help. The site then became called “Ebenezer”.
(Disclaimer: this is totally the cliff notes version of the context,historically and geographically but all I really set out to do was lookup the meaning of the word.)
Monday, June 22, 2009
New words and language structures
New Words -
Exegesis : to explain, interpret (MW), critical explanation or analysis, especially of a text (New american heritage dictionary), Explanation, exposition or critical explanation of a text or portion of scripture(Websters unabridged)
Eisegesis: the interpretation of a text, especially by reading into it, one's own ideas (MW). an interpretation of the text that expresses the reader's own ideas, bias or the like rather than the meaning of the text (Random Hse Dictionary)
Grammar -
predicate : the part of a sentence that expresses what is said of a subject. usually a verb, with or without subjects and/or adverbial modifiers.
preposition: a function word that combines with a noun phrase which expresses a modification or predication (MW). any member of a class of words that are typically used before nouns, pronouns or substantives to form phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, nouns, or adjectives and that typically establish a spatial or temporal other r/s (dictionary.com)
Participle: a word that has characteristics of both a noun and an adjective. English verbal form that has the function of the adjective but shows such features as tense, voice and capacity to take an object. (MW) Adjective or complement to certain auxiliaries that is regularly derived from the verb in many instances and refers to participation in the action or state of the verb. it does not have a person or number in English but may have a subject or object, show tense. (eg 'burning' as in 'burning candle') (Random House dictionary) A form of verb in some languages (such as english) that can function independantly as an adjective such as the past participle 'baked' in 'we had some baked beans' and is used with some auxiliary verb to indicate, tense, aspect or voice such as the past participle 'baked' in the passive sentence ' the beans were baked too long'.
link to usage note - on dangling particples and how some particples are turned into prepositions.
Exegesis : to explain, interpret (MW), critical explanation or analysis, especially of a text (New american heritage dictionary), Explanation, exposition or critical explanation of a text or portion of scripture(Websters unabridged)
Eisegesis: the interpretation of a text, especially by reading into it, one's own ideas (MW). an interpretation of the text that expresses the reader's own ideas, bias or the like rather than the meaning of the text (Random Hse Dictionary)
Grammar -
predicate : the part of a sentence that expresses what is said of a subject. usually a verb, with or without subjects and/or adverbial modifiers.
preposition: a function word that combines with a noun phrase which expresses a modification or predication (MW). any member of a class of words that are typically used before nouns, pronouns or substantives to form phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, nouns, or adjectives and that typically establish a spatial or temporal other r/s (dictionary.com)
Participle: a word that has characteristics of both a noun and an adjective. English verbal form that has the function of the adjective but shows such features as tense, voice and capacity to take an object. (MW) Adjective or complement to certain auxiliaries that is regularly derived from the verb in many instances and refers to participation in the action or state of the verb. it does not have a person or number in English but may have a subject or object, show tense. (eg 'burning' as in 'burning candle') (Random House dictionary) A form of verb in some languages (such as english) that can function independantly as an adjective such as the past participle 'baked' in 'we had some baked beans' and is used with some auxiliary verb to indicate, tense, aspect or voice such as the past participle 'baked' in the passive sentence ' the beans were baked too long'.
link to usage note - on dangling particples and how some particples are turned into prepositions.
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