Is there a panel of people to decide collective nouns or is it common usage that decides collective nouns?
2006-12-05 09:31:33 · 6 answers · asked by olliehunt 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
The noun fairies
2006-12-05 09:33:42 · answer #1 · answered by brainlady 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Interesting thought...
and that made me wonder -
What is the collective noun for the board of people who decide what collective noun to use?
Are they known as "The Collective"?
Should we ask Q?
2006-12-05 18:29:51 · answer #2 · answered by franja 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was before my time dearie. ANd your, and everyone's. Language evolves and things get added and dropped. 50 years ago there was not word for megabyte. Or pixel.
So the collective nouns were 'invented' when necessary.
2006-12-05 18:12:19 · answer #3 · answered by thisbrit 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Once a word or phrase comes into common usage, and there is grammatical sense to it, then it will make it into the dictionary.
For example, 'a hairy of sheds', would not be accepted, whereas a 'deluge of sheds' would.
There also has to be written evidence for its inclusion in the dictionary, and irreputable 'proof' of its meaning.
2006-12-05 20:19:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You and I (we) do so. Long may that last. There y'are we even have collective pronouns. Sure the language is live. Lets immunise it against semi-lingual terms like "megabytes" and "pixels". I'd like to see those terms in plain English or, given where I come from, exotic Irish; another live language that gave us the much more important term, "craic".
2006-12-05 19:45:39 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We do. Collectively.
2006-12-05 17:39:26 · answer #6 · answered by gabluesmanxlt 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋