Where did collective names for animals come from? They were essentially just made up in the Middle Ages... along with collective names for groups of people, such as: -rascal of boys -misbelief of painters -scolding of chemists -multiplying of husbands -disworship of Scots -eloquence of lawyers -discretion of priests -threatening of courtiers -worship of writers Juliana Berners was a prioress who compiled the Book of St Albans in the year 1486. This was a guide for gentlemen which included information about things like heraldry. Part of this guide was called The Companies of Beasties and Fowlies, where Berners lists the collective names (known as "terms of venery") for the sorts of animals gentlemen might be hunting. It wasn't the first such compilation but it was by far the largest up to that point. What's difficult to discover is where exactly these names came from. Some think they emerged from common usage, but others believe they were literally just made up, whether by Berners or somebody else, to create an amusing and rather poetic lingo for gentlemen. All words are made up, of course, but usually they emerge over time or are coined in a scientific or scholarly context. These collective names, however, seem to be the result of an aristocratic hunting culture during the Middle Ages, combined with certain courtly frivolity and a fashion for obscurantist terms of venery which had come to England from France. In any case, they weren't and never have been "official" in any way. Many of them were rarely used, if ever, though some of them did catch on and have survived to this day, such as the rather delightful "murmuration of starlings." But they were evidently supposed to be funny rather than serious, inevitably playing on the particular characteristics of those animals, such as an "unkindness of ravens" and a "parliament of owls". And the same was true of Berners' collective names for groups of people: -superfluity of nuns -doctrine of doctors -tabernacle of bakers -fighting of beggars -drunkship of cobblers -melody of harpers -poverty of pipers -disguising of tailors This tradition of poetic, obscure, and witty group names for animals lived on as new species were discovered. Not all the names listed below are in the Book of St Albans, and many more of these "unofficial" collective names have been coined in recent decades. These terms of venery are, in part, a wonderful glance into courtly life during the Late Middle Ages — at the very least it gives us some idea of their sense of humour. And there's no reason this tradition of witty collective names should disappear. Whereas Berners came up with terms of venery for taverners, prelates, and barons, we might do the same for coders, podcasters, influencers, data scientists, and bloggers. What could be some modern collective names for these or any other groups of people who didn't exist in the Middle Ages?