Collective nouns...

Question

Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a group of pedants?(I have looked first and found nothing except a "piddle" (which I believe was the result of a competition is Sydney - Aust.))PeterUK

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a group of pedants?[/nq]
Mensa?

Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.tripod.com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a group of pedants? (I have looked first and found nothing except a "piddle" (which I believe was the result of a competition is Sydney - Aust.))[/nq]
Something like that sounds about right: an `arsehole', perhaps.
SAm.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a ... was the result of a competition is Sydney - Aust.))[/nq]
[nq:1]Something like that sounds about right: an `arsehole', perhaps.[/nq]
I am fortunate in being able to say with perfect truthfulness that I have yet to meet one of that unhappy breed, the pedant. Nonetheless, given the predominance of North-Americans, or, I should say, citizens of the United States, or, rather, of the United States of America (for I surmise perhaps you will be able to corroborate or disprove my conjecture on this point that those of the United States of Brazil represent a relatively small proportion of the whole) in our number, I fancy that that should be "***". You may, of course, prefer and I for one would unhesitatingly concur to use the traditional hyphen in this compound noun; thus we should not alone satisfy rational orthography, but also prevent any possibility of mispronunciation by a reader unfamiliar with the term perhaps, for example, a Brazilian.
Let it, then, be "***-hole"; save, I think, in the English language used outside the Americas, where it would surely be unjust formally to proscribe the use of the version "***-hole". But perhaps you may be disposed to demur from the implication that the Anglophone West Indies do not constitute a part of the Americas, properly so called. I regret that you would be right, and that I have been guilty of an over-hasty categorization the more flagrant in that it took no account of that territory formerly known as "British Guiana".

Are you both able and willing to provide us with a suitable term or form of words for the purpose? I am painfully conscious that I have yet to consider the form most suitable for use in Canada; for in that great land I have met both "***" and "***" with almost equal, and tell it not in Gath equally pleasurable, frequency: is it possible that you would assist us in our deliberations as to the resolution of this dilemma?

Mike.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a group of pedants? (I have looked first and found nothing except a "piddle" (which I believe was the result of a competition is Sydney - Aust.))[/nq]
A Pirates of Pedants?

David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Just wondering - what is the collective noun for a ... was the result of a competition is Sydney - Aust.))[/nq]
[nq:1]A Pirates of Pedants?[/nq]
A muzzle would be better.

Regards
John

Collective nouns...

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions