【精英翻譯】的部落格

What Do You Call a Group of…?　令人意想不到的動物集合名詞

精英翻譯社轉自: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0062/340397/web/

Forget “pack” or “herd.” There are a lot of very odd collective nouns for animals.

忘掉「一群（動物）」或「獸群」這些字吧。還有許多非常奇特的動物集合名詞。

English can be a strange language on occasion. This is particularly true when it comes to the collective nouns that describe animals. For example, did you know that a group of hippos is called a bloat? Or that several crocodiles are called a bask? For some unknown reason, the correct name for a group of crows is a murder.

英文有時候是很奇怪的語言。尤其講到描述動物的集合名詞時更是如此。舉例來說， 你知道一群河馬是用「bloat」來稱呼嗎？或者一些鱷魚是用「bask」來稱呼嗎？因為某種未知的原因，一群烏鴉的正確稱呼是「murder」。

People have come up with crazy collective nouns in English throughout history. The first person to record them was Juliana Berners. In 1486, she published The Book of St. Albans. The book gave people pointers on how to play sports and become good at hunting. It also listed 165 names for animal groups. Not much is known about Berners, but people guess she was from a rich family because she wrote well and knew a lot about hunting.

人們在整個歷史上想出了瘋狂的英文集合名詞。第一位記下它們的人是茱莉安娜‧柏納絲。1486 年時，她發表了《The Book of St. Albans》這本書。這本書提供人們有關如何進行體育活動及變得擅於打獵的指引。它也列出了一百六十五個給動物群體用的稱呼。有關柏納絲的資訊不多，但是人們猜測她出身自一個富有的家庭，因為她的文筆很好且懂得許多打獵的知識。

Although many collective nouns have already been set, new ones are still being created. Lately, animal guides in Africa started using the term “dazzle” to describe a group of zebras. If you can’t recall all of these collective nouns, don’t feel bad. Many native speakers don’t know them, either!

雖然許多集合名詞已被制訂出來，但是依然有新的集合名詞被創造出來。最近，非洲的動物嚮導開始用「dazzle」這個措詞來描述一群斑馬。如果你記不住所有這些集合名詞，別難過。許多母語人士也不認識它們！