The Collective Noun Page - "fesnyng" background

From [email protected] Sat Jul 27 18:49:50 1996 Per 'fesnyng', consider the following usenet post: **** Newsgroups: alt.usage.english Subject: Re: Sesquipedalephilia Ben Walsh ([email protected]) wrote: > This question has bothered me on a kind of conceptual, rather than > a linguistic, level. > > The word "fesnyng" is the collective noun given to ferrets. A fesnyng > of ferrets is one of those idiomatic and endearing terms now facing > extinction. When was the last time anyone said "a murder of crows" and > not "a flock"? A "charm of nightingales"? A "watch" of whatever it is > that comes in watches? > > So, there is the rough Saxon term "fesnyng", heavy with both > alliteration and assonance: "a fesnyng of ferrets". Lovely. > > Here, though, is the problem. Ferrets are fiercely solitary animals. > They are no more likely to get together in a fesnyng than you or I are. > So how, or why, does this word exist? How can you label something which > does not ever happen? > > The argument: make your own fesnyng. Put a group of ferrets together (I > believe that a bathtub is usually used for this purpose), and one might > claim to be entitled to say "there's a fesnyng in my bath". However, I > disagree. You do not have a fesnyng any more than several lions from > different prides constitute one pride when put together. > > Any thoughts?? I have something much better than mere thoughts. Last night, in the spirit of scientific research, I invited several people over for a few beers. In my bathtub upstairs I installed 12 ferrets. Then, whenever anyone returned from using the bathroom I asked them, "Did you notice anything unusual in the bathroom?" Not a single individual said he noticed anything unusual, but when I pressed further two or three of them did say, "Well, there *was* a fesnyng in your bathtub...." Now I completely agree with your contention that just gathering together a few lions from different prides would not constitute a new pride anymore than gathering together a random bunch of people would result in a family, but what the above ferret experiment seems to show is that, since ferrets do not *naturally* form fesnyngs, the fact that I formed one unnaturally--so to speak--in my bathtub does not make it any less a fesnyng, since there is no more genuine fesnyng to compare it to. In a further spirit of scientific research I plan to put 8 or 10 unrelated people of various genders in my bathtub and see if that results in a family....

I hope this clears up the mystery. ****