I walk. Not very far, just around my neighborhood. It is good exercise. I wish that I could state with candor that I walk every day, but often chores, like doing the wash or paying the bills, take precedence. I don’t walk in the rain and, unlike mad dogs and Englishmen, I don’t go out in the mid-day sun. Lately I’ve had to alter my route because there are hundreds of mosquitoes clustered around a certain group of trees.
When I tried to warn a neighbor who also likes to walk around the neighborhood about the mosquitoes, I didn’t know what to call them. I mean, I know that it’s a swarm of bees and a nest of wasps. But what does one call a grouping of mosquitoes? Fortunately, I have a little book by James Lipton that I consulted, hoping that he’d have the answer. He informs us that it’s a “plague of locusts,” an “army of caterpillars,” and a “colony of ants.” But I couldn’t find anything about mosquitoes.
‘Birds of a Feather’
There is a saying that “birds of a feather flock together.” That may be true, but their togetherness occurs in distinct groupings. According to Mr. Lipton, it’s an “Unkindness of Ravens” and a “True Love of Turtledoves.” He explains that the expression for ravens stems from The Folk Lore of British Birds, published in 1885. In it, the author claims that ravens pushed their young out of the nest “to be nourished with dew from heaven.” Whereas, the classification of Turtledoves may derive from a work by Shakespeare. When Troilus pledges his love to Cressida, he compares it to amorous clichés of the day: “… truth tired with iteration: as true as steel, as plantage to the moon, as sun to day, as turtle to her mate….” The turtle, of course, was a reference to the monogamous turtledove.
And, of course, it’s a murder of crows. Lipton doesn’t even attempt to explain or justify that appellation. He tells us that “a Murther of Crowes” appears in “The Hors, Shepe, & Ghoose,” published in 1822. I suppose that was something like a farmers’ almanac about horses, sheep, and geese, but I don’t know in what context the description of crows was mentioned. However, I do know that our downtown merchants would probably like to murder crows when the birds invade the business district.
Lipton drops “a murmuration of starlings” on us with no explanation, just the notation that it is “an old and honorable term” that appears in the ancient manuscripts about birds. The author covers myriad types of animals, including groups of human beings, like a “college of cardinals,” a “board of trustees,” a “field of runners,” a “line of sovereigns,” an “order of peers,” a “coven of witches” (if they’re female); “congeries of witches” (if they’re male), a “gathering of clans,” and a “posse of vigilantes.” There was scant mention of flying bugs. However, he had more to relate about birds.
Feathers of a bird
According to Lipton, the Book of St. Albans (published in 1486) refers to a muster of peacocks. However, he believes that designation was suggested by Dame Juliana, who copied it from the aforementioned The Hors, Shepe, & Ghoose. He thinks that “muster” was borrowed from a “muster of troops,” “muster” being a formation when soldiers “showed off” their “brilliant” uniforms. Then, in 1925, The Illustrated and Dramatic Sporting News redefined “muster” and now a grouping of peacocks is an “ostentation of peacocks,” a reference to males spreading their feathers to attract the attention of females.
When birders speak of a “Charm of Finches,” they may not be aware that the term derives from the Old English word, “cirm,” which was a reference to the chirping sound that the bird made. Through the years, through Middle English and into today’s English, the word evolved into charm, in the sense of “a quality exciting love or admiration.”
Lipton’s book, a compendium of terms for groupings of things, mostly animals, is titled “An Exaltation of Larks.” Without explanation, he writes that the expression derives from the Edgerton Manuscript (1450) which refers to the flight of the birds as an “exaltacyon of larkys.”
About mosquitoes
I was disappointed that Lipton did not include mosquitoes in his informative book. And, truthfully, I’m not really interested in birds. But I am curious about words and their etymology. My guess is that Mr. Lipton, who died in 2020, was, too. However, his biography informs, “The book [An Exaltation of Larks] is a collection of ‘terms of venery,’ both real and created by Lipton himself.” What?! Does this mean that he just “made up” a bunch of descriptions for various things and animals? Well, at least that would explain the following entries: An “ohm of electricians,” a “flush of plumbers,” a “clamber of roofers,” a “drip of painters,” a “crash of glaziers,” a “panel of carpenters,” a “quantum of mechanics,” a “snooze of nightwatchmen,” and a “sesame of locksmiths.”
So, I think that if Mr. Lipton could catalog and/or create terms for various categories, I should be able to come up with a term to describe all those mosquitoes that caused me to alter my route through my neighborhood. At first, I came up with an “annoyance of mosquitoes,” but then I remembered that mosquitoes are the greatest non-human killers of human beings. And a recent column in the Los Angeles Times by Kevinisha Walker informs, “California is emerging as a hot spot for diseases spread by mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas, with rising cases of West Nile virus, dengue, flea-borne typhus, and other infections.” So, how about an “Armageddon of Mosquitoes?”
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Chuck Doud was publisher/editor of The Madera Tribune for many years. I think that he was loved by everyone who knew him. If he were still alive, he would have turned 85 today. People, like me, who knew him well miss him. If I were still a drinking man, I’d raise one to my friend, Chuck.
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Jim Glynn es Profesor Emérito de Sociología. Se le puede contactar en j_glynn@att.net.