A shrewdness of apes and a business of ferrets

While dropping off at school this morning, I learned that Veronica (age 7) is studying the collective nouns used to describe groups of animals. I got such a kick out of these two (listed above). The collective noun somehow gets at the essence of the animal, in a way that makes me smile.

Here are some others

• A bloat of hippos
• A leap of leopards
• A scurry of squirrels
• A pounce of cats
• A streak of tigers

These nouns need to find ways into our everyday conversations more often. Maybe we should make these trivia questions at the cafes for a while.

So what would we call a group of baristas?

• A press of baristi?
• A pour of baristi?
• A jitter of baristi?
• A puck of baristi?