A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance — and collective nouns are stranger than you think
Collective nouns in English are often poetic or absurd: a parliament of owls, a murder of crows, an unkindness of ravens, a tower of giraffes, an ambush of tigers, a bloat of hippopotamuses, a conspiracy of lemurs, a pandemonium of parrots, and a flamboyance of flamingos. Many of these were invented in the 15th century by English nobility in a linguistic game of wit — compiled in 'Books of Courtesy' as displays of learned wordplay. Some stuck; some were forgotten and rediscovered.
Collective nouns feel like they have ancient, logical origins — as if a 'murder' of crows was named for something crows do. Finding that many were invented as aristocratic word games in the 1400s makes the English language feel simultaneously richer and more arbitrary.
“A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance. A group of owls: a parliament. Crows: a murder. Hippos: a bloat. Many of these were invented as aristocratic word games in the 1400s. 🦩 #OddlyHuman”