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Category Archives: Cartoon
A Rabble of Animals
Did you know that a group of vultures has a sense of humour? Or at least the people who decided to name them did (likely back in the 16th century, when a slew of collective nouns emerged): While hanging out and doing nothing, vultures are called a committee. When feeding, they’re called a wake. There’s irony in them thar’ varmints.
Some collective nouns are common sense, and others simply common, such as packs of wolves, flocks of birds or herds of cattle; but did you know that lice flock, and sea urchins form herds, too? If I say swarm, you might think of flies or gnats or even minnows; but you could use the same word to describe a group of eels.
Worms bed, dotterels trip, cheetahs form a coalition, and Hippopotami bloat. Rhinoceroses either crash or form a stubbornness, while skunks stench and squirrels scurry. Jellyfish smack, brood or fluther, while oysters bed and goldfish glint or create a troubling. Butterflies flutter, swarm or kaleidoscope; caterpillars army, while grasshoppers cloud.
There are some fun combinations: Crows murder (they also gather as a storytelling or a parcel), Flamingos flamboyance, guillemots bazaar, gulls screech (don’t they, though?), and hawks kettle (flying in large numbers) and boil (two or more spiralling on an updraft). Hummingbirds charm, as do Magpies (unless they murder), and owls and rooks hold a parliament – I’d trust them to do so more than most politicians. Peacocks muster, ostentation and pride, while penguins tuxedo or huddle (I kid you not). Young penguins gather in a Créche, just like human toddlers, and seagulls squabble.
Starlings form beautiful murmurations and chatterings, while swifts scream and tigers ambush. I’d love to see a zeal of zebras, but not so much a prickle of porcupines. Whales pod while trout hover and stingrays fever; snails walk, frogs knot and, believe it or not, rattlesnakes rhumba! Elephants gather as a memory, while deer gang and bucks clash, and gnus form an implausibility. Running into a mob of kangaroos might be quite pleasant, but not an intrusion of cockroaches!
There are hundreds more such collective nouns; English is an ever-changing language, but some things are just too good to allow them to go the way of the Dodo, so add a few more colourful expressions to your language, and enjoy the idiosyncrasies of English!
I’ll just add that, by now, my grammar-checking program is having a nervous breakdown.
Finding Time
Lately, I’ve been thinking about time; how much we have in a day, how fast it passes, and that days never seem to be long enough. In dwelling on time, is it a waste of time? Is productivity only what our hands produce, or does it include, in our perception, what our minds ruminate on? Obviously, the trail led me to idioms about time.
What idioms or phrases do you use to describe your day? I use one phrase about four times a week, as I write it in my journal to describe my day in a nutshell before I go into details: “Hit the Ground Running” (I just write HTGR). I’m grateful for the days I don’t use it… those days are like a secret stash of chocolate to be enjoyed (if you knew my husband, you’d know that’s a matter of self-preservation – but don’t tell him. Hoi, Schätzli). The phrase, etymologically speaking, came into use in the late 19th century, but really, well, hit the ground running during World War 2: It became a popular way of describing deployment from ships or parachuting into combat. Later it moved to a figurative sense; some days, I use it both literally and figuratively.
Here is a collection of idioms about using one’s time. Let me know if you use any of them regularly. If you know of any others, please share it in the comments below!
A day late and a dollar short
Against the clock
A good time
A hard time
A laugh a minute
A matter of time
A mile a minute
A month of Sundays
Around the clock
As honest as the day is long
A whale of a time
Beat the clock
Behind the times
Better late than never
Bide one’s time
By degrees
Call it a day/night
Call time (on something)
Carry the day
Catch someone at a bad time
Clock in, clock out
Crack of dawn
Crunch time
Day in the sun
Day to day
Dog Days
Donkey’s years
Don’t know whether to wind a watch or bark at the moon
Do time
Dwell on the past
Eleventh hour
Feast today, famine tomorrow
Five o’clock shadow
For the time being
From now on
From time to time
Have one’s moments
Have time on one’s side
Here today, gone tomorrow
High time
Hit the big time
Hour of need
In an instant / In the blink of an eye
In the interim
In the long run
In the right (wrong) place at the right (wrong) time
In this day and age
Just in the nick
Kill time
Like clockwork
Like there’s no tomorrow
Long time no see
Make my day
Make time
Not in a million years
No time like the present
No time to lose
Now and then
Now or never
Once in a blue moon
Once upon a time
Only time will tell
Pressed for time
Serve time
Shelf life
Sooner or later
Stand the test of time
Stuck in a time warp
Take one day at a time
The moment of truth
The ship has sailed
The time is ripe
The time of one’s life
Time for a change
Time flies
Time heals all wounds
Time is money
Time is of the essence
Time off for good behaviour
Too much time on one’s hands
Turn back the hands of time
Until hell freezes over
Waste of time
Wasting time
When the moon turns to blood
Year in, year out
Filed under Articles, Cartoon, Etymology, Lists, Musings, Nuts & Bolts, Writing Exercise
