Today’s Time Waster: Literary Figure Collective Nouns
Posted on July 28, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 288 Comments
Imagine there were more than one of your favorite literary characters (or film characters, or video game characters, or whatever). Like clones, or something. What would you call the grouping of the multiple instances of that character? What would be their idiomatically correct collective noun? Give your examples in the comment thread.
To get you started, here’s some I’ve thought up.
A Hesitation of Hamlets
A Banter of Benedicts
A Dourness of Darias
A Honeypot of Poohs
A Returning of Terminators
A Smirking of Kirks
A Library of Belles
An Aside of Rosencrantzes
A Fussiness of Fraisers
An Embarrassment of Jar-Jars
Got it? You take it from here. Let’s see what you come up with.
Notes and suggestions:
1. Quality over quantity. Three (or even one) excellent, funny collective nouns are better than twenty half-assed ones.
2. If someone else does a literary (or whatever) figure you wanted to collectivize, go ahead and do it, just do it differently.
3. Don’t just go for the easy ones — do some nifty obscure or unexpected ones, too.
4. This is a personal preference but: Don’t collectivize real people; that will inevitable lead to weird editorializing.
5. As much as possible, avoid the sort of collective nouning that would otherwise get you Malleted for being racist, sexist, homphobic, etc, because a) it won’t be funny, and b) I’ll Mallet you. I don’t expect the vast majority of you will need this note.
6. Comments that are not collective nouns run the risk of being deleted, since they will clutter up the thread.
Okay then. Carry on.
I think “a smirk of Kirks” would be preferable.
A conspiracy of Vorkosigans
A harangue of Sherlocks
A calamity of (Harry) Dresdens
The most popular collective noun book, An Exaltation of Larks, was written by James Lipton who is best known for his work on Inside the Actors Studio.
I just did up a whole batch of answers that had more to do with geeky pursuits than literary figures. I must rethink and try again.
A Spinning of Clothos
A Phalanx of Freemen
A Plague of Harkonnens
A Miasma of Zhans
A Wandering of Morlocks
A Scuttling of Samsas
A Redemption of Istas
A Whatever of Scalzis
A Diamond of Kinsellas
An Infatuation of Ahabs
An Exorbitant of Micawbers
To go with my earlier one:
A Measurement of Lachesis(es)*
A Cutting of Atropos(es)*
A Destiny of Fates
* I have no idea how one would pluralize these.
A snark of Blackadders
A bumble of (Bertie) Woosters
A collapsar of (Nero) Wolfes
A murder of Dexters
A Panic of Arthur Dents
A magnificence of Peter Wimseys
A decay of Havishams
An untouchable of Rogues
A Murder of Dravens (, Eric)
A Pear of Perrys (Perries?)
A Spangle of Spenglers
A Feast of Banquos
An Elaboration of Ellery Queens
A Dump of Vogons
An Extinction of Starks
An Obfuscation of Dumbledores
A Lie of Lockes.
A hypocrisy of Felixes (Harrowgate)
An embassy of Retiefs
A ring of Frodos (OK, that’s really low-hanging fruit)
A bath (or a net) of Agamemnons (alternatively Agamemnontes)
uldihaa: The correct Greek plurals would be Lacheses and Atropoi.
A (drain)Clog of Marios
A Barrel of Kongs
A Chain of Links
A Pie of Pac-People
A Pyramid of QBerts
A Shovel of DigDugs
A Machina of Deities
An Elementary of Watsons
A Largesse of Timons
A taunting of Tontos, and
A lone Ranger*
*okay, that one wasn’t low; I picked that one up off the ground
A Violence of Rambos
A School of Enders
A Jingle of Manxes
An Obsession of Ahabs
A Madness of Torrances
A screaming of Khans
A Tintinabulation of Tintins.
Hey, I’m a big fan of those comics. The one with the yeti and the one with the opium smugglers in China–those were the best.
A Vault of Banks (Iain M.)
A Fist of Mercurys (Freddie) [this is a concert video reference, btw]
An Interdimensional-Portal of Lovecrafts
A Chaos of Cthulhus
A Pattern of Corwins
A Fleet of Miles
I’m torn between:
A craziness of Cthulhus
or
A cuddle of Cthulhus
(Mine are all cuddly.)
A Dream of Baoyu
A Flowering of Daiyu
Ghaa. Missed number 4. Sorry, John. And I know I’m in violation of 6 with this one, but you can always mallet this.
a Tomb of Starks (yes, I did)
a Glory of Paladins
A battery of Batmans
A gambit of Bonds
A lexicon of Luthors
A predominance of (Mr.) Bigs
An anagram of Alucards
A scorn of Scalzis
A Bunch of Stens
A chaos of Modesitts
A pick of Pipers
A Cuddle of Cowthulhus. (Thank you, Munchkin: Cthulhu 2: the Call of Cowthulhu)
An exactement of Poirots
A Snikt of Wolverines
A Tardis of Doctors
Guys, remember that I suggested not using live people (who, if theoretically they saw your collective noun and were not pleased by it, might be offended)
A silence of Kvothes
John, could you replace my post at 10:45 with the following correction?
A Measurement of Lacheses*
A Cutting of Atropoi*
A Destiny of Fates
*With thanks to DemetriosX for the correct way to pluralize Lachesis and Atropos
A series of Skywalkers
A singularity of Solos
A skyhook of Landos
A dearth of Vaders
An Scrimping of Scrooges
A Downfall of Dortmunders
A Hubris of Higginses
A Choking of Vaders
A Wander of Ishmaels.
A Pshaw of Wolfes.
A Ravage of Conans.
An Argosy of van Rijns.
A Moor of Heathcliffs.
a heathen of Heathcliffs
a gloaming of Gatsbies
a madness of Kurtzes (Apocalypse Now)
a surfeit of Kilgores (also Apocalypse Now, and a pun)
“A Hubris of Higginses”
An elite of Elizas
A dereliction of Doolittles
A cell of Poirots (grey of course)
A Competent of Crichtons
A bridge of trolls
A hatful of wizards
A malady of magics (stolen from Craig Shaw Gardner)
A burn of boasters
A focus of lensmen
A a kiln of Potters
A Regret of Raskolnikovs
Reblogged this on this 'n that.
A sniping of Snapes
A legend of Links
Curse you, autocorrect! That was supposed to read “a burn of blasters”
A darkness of Sevarians.
A circle of Elric brothers.
A conflagration of Fëanors.
A chase of Rincewinds.
A Mystery of Marples
A surge of Tetsuos.
An Ego of Time Lords
A Tara of Scarletts
A Problem of Marias
An Okay of Lumberjacks
A Mod of Jimmies
An indignancy of Jos (Little Women)
A bankruptcy of Gatsbys
A howl of Benjys (The Sound and the Fury)
A pride of Darcys
A dispirit of Dilberts
A wearyness of Wallys
A swifting of Toms
A force of Jedi
A decimation of redshirts
A range of Striders
A Tardis of Doctors
A Story of Companions
A Master of Masters
A family of Lazarus Longs
A Card of Valentines
A wandering of Odysseoi
A whining of Lukes
A Klattering Kacophony of Klingons
(forgive the spelling–I kouldn’t help it)
An Anticipation of Godots
An Interruption of Freys
A Stash of Magnums
A clutch of Scrooges
A scheming of Lady Macbeths
A madness of Lears
A dither of Hamlets
An alienation of Meursaults
Wrecks of Oedipuses
(or should that be Oedipi?)
A Canticle of Leibowitzes
A skein of Marples
A kennel of Baskervilles
A wave of Pitts (Dirk)
A disturbance of Jedi
(because I just finally played ME2)
A collection of Shepards
An Honor of Harringtons
A Bane of Shanas
A Fur of Fuzzies
A Wander of Dutchmen
A Buckaroo of Banzais
A Firefly of Malcoms
I could go on, but …
A snark of boojums
An argument of goblins (Jim Hines’s goblins that is)
A Confusion of Thursday Nexts
(In the books, more than one Thursday already exists, but I don’t believe there is a collective noun for them)
A shortage of Dwarves.
A Subtlety of wizards
A Conspiracy of politicians
A Cell Block of politicians
A Nonabio of cats
A Convention of writers
A Horde of fans
A Stutter of Piglets.
A Rape of Maugrims.
A Fate of Riselkas.
Just to clarify (after a young family member expressed puzzlement), “a Largesse of Timons” refers to the title character in Shakespeare’s play, not the more recent cartoon iteration.
A Frieze of Yetis
A Quai of Dorsai
A Foreclosure of Holmes
A whine of Skywalkers A swagger of Solos
A legacy of Lannisters
A sternness of Starks
A meddle of Martells
An inundation of Greyjoys
A stickiness of Littlefingers
An undertone of Varyses
A raft of Hucks
A circling of Riddleys (Hoban, Riddley Walker)
A rumpus of Maxes
A whine of Mos (Here)
A nightmare of Pennywises
A Millennium of (Lazarus) Longs
A Piper of Fuzzies
A Grok of Martians
A Hand of Ninefingers.
A Game of Sherlocks
A Meddling of Marples
A Perfection of Poirots
A Helping of Hastings
A Preponderance of Penelope Pittstops
Sorry. That one was stuck in my head and had to be exorcised.
I blame Mr. Scalzi.
A sorrow of Werthers
A case of Hardies (as in Frank and Joe)
An Oh No of John Ringos
A Summoning of Hasturs
An idiocy of Ivans
A monogamy of Arals
An arbiter of Alyses
A Deed of Paksenarrions
A Gumshoe of Garretts
A Mars of Podokaynes
A Shadow of Shadiths
A gratuity of Gatsbys
A casuistry of Carraways
A dither of Daisys
A two-timitude of Toms
A justification of Jordans
A mortality of Myrtles
A wipeout of Wilsons
A boole of Spocks (can’t believe no one did Spock yet)
A Madness of Moby Dicks
A Precious of Gollums
A Pie tin of Tamoras
A Romance of Romeos
A Chain of (Jacob) Marleys
A Murder of Annabell Lees
A Dea(r)th of Redshirts
A Hello of Inigo Montoyas
A beaming of Scottys
A cowabunga of Ninja Turtles (yes, I know there are four of them…just liked the sound of it)
A precious of Golums
Sorry, missed the Golum ref right above mine…
A hold of Caulfields
A sparkle of Edwards
An Annoyance of Coworkers.
An Oh My of Sulus
A ……….. of ninjas (Good luck finding a group on ninjas or one for that matter)
A Watching of Brothers (Big)
A criminality of Corleones (from “The Godfather”)
A ranting of [Howard] Beales (from “Network”)
A dementia of [Norma] Desmonds (from “Sunset Boulevard”)
A dismemberment of Lavinias
A lave of Aarons
A dearth of Ninjas (no, not “darth”, dearth! After all, you probably can’t see them)
A MANTERGEISTMANN! of Gully Foyles
A logic of Spocks. Obvious and easy, but still….
a scalzi of Redshirts (intentionally non-capitalized)
a logical unit of Vulcans
a meddle of Time Lords
a stairway of Daleks
A murder of Starks. That is all ;)
sigh. timing is every…
…thing
a cowlick of Tintins?
A Dustbin of Daleks.
A maroon of Crusoes
No more, no less than 5
A clutch of Cumberbatches. ( I know. Not a literary character. But I liked the alliteration)
A hono(u)r of Hornblowers
A disassembly of Datas
An luxury of Bovaries
A whale of Ahabs
A grendel of Schaeffers
A fava of Lecters
A peculiarity of Goreys (Edward)
A Wuthering of Heathcliffes
I am certain you mean a banter of Benedicks. Otherwise we’d presumably be talking about Benedict of Amber, who is one of the least bantery people ever. A victory of Benedicts I could see, though.
A monster of Frankensteins
You could add an apostrophe
To convert to the singular
John Mark, I think it would be Oedipodes. Not sure, but the correct plural of ‘octopus’ is ‘octopodes’, so I figure it might be parallel. Of course if DemetriosX weighs in I will bow to his greater knowledge.
A Pride of Elizabeth (Bennet)s
A Prejudice of Mr. Darcys
A Sarcasm of Crichtons
A Conniving of Rygels
A Slither of Scorpiuses*
A Brilliance of Carters
A Wisdom of Jacksons
An Overly-Elaborated and Excessively Wordy Pronouncement of Teal’cs
*That is ONLY in reference to the character in Farscape. Note, the name is capitalized.
A Hoyle of black clouds
A murder of Archers
A girth of Gutman
A sneak of Cairos
A toolshed of Spades
A lie of Wonderlies
A Wonders of Women
A Web of Spidermen
Apologies if I missed any of these when I read through comments.
A damit of McCoys (Star Trek)
An ethical dubiousness of McCoys (Law & Order)
A deduction of Sherlocks
A caffeination of Dallases (Her.)
A crumbs of Penfolds (Danger Mouse)
A teetotalism of Draculas
A dirk of digglers
Or
A diggler of dirks
I gotta go
@ Xopher/John Mark
Yup, Oedipodes.
A seven of Blakes (no matter how many there are)
A sneer of Avons
A cringe of Vilas
A slink of Servalans
A blink of Oracs
Can’t think of anything for the rest of them. It’s been so long, I probably can’t even remember all the people.
A candelabra of (Hal) Jordans. Why, yes… yes I DO see comics as literature.. ;-)
A Woodshed of Ada Dooms.
A Superiority of Sherlocks
A Snigger of Snapes
A Solemnity of Starks
A Parliament of Pendragons
A Slumbering of Cthulhus
A Telling of Kvothes
A Tangle of Tiamats
A quarry of Mine Crafters
A mystery(s) of Baldricks
A baldrick of Mysteries (not a character but a situation)
A LOT of Weasleys or would plural be Weaslies (there were a lot of them)
Several miles of Vorkosigans
a graveyard of Starks
A confustication of hobbits.
A Boil of Jobs
A Snippet of Samsons
A Dog’s Dinner of Jezebels
A Baldness* of Elishas
*or Bear Pit
A fall of Ushers
A tardiness of Godots
An irony of Andys (Generation X)
An impossibility of Buendías (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
A fist of Alices (the Dilbert female engineer)
A snark of Dogberts
A sneer of Catberts
A Winterfair of Cordelias
A blue of Tardises
A who of Companions
A nescience of Jon Snows
An evirato of Theons
A misbegotten of Joffreys
A traipse of Daenerysi
A Homocide of Macbeths
A Troll of Bigots
A Jury of Judge John Hodgmans
a Snide of Snapes
a Spot of de Villes
a Pi of Magnums
a Reclusion of Radleys
a Crush of Wils (I know, I know, #4 – but Wils works SO much better than Wesleys)
A Facepalm of Picards.
A Puzzlement of Datas.
A Polygamy of (Lazarus) Longs.
Xopher, in all humbleness, I believe you have it backwards:
A Pride of Darcys
A Prejudice of Bennets
Going on…
A Marx of Karls
A Foundation of Asimovs
A Mallet of Scalzis (sorry, I couldn’t resist)
A tomb of Starks
A scheming of Lannisters
A dearth of Vaders
A vortex of Time Lords
A fellowship of hobbits
A tryst of Lancelots
A sleigh of Hogfathers
A lecture of Poloniuses (Polonii?)
A raft of Ophelias
A catastrophe of Ramses (Emerson), although I think that could apply to Miles Vorkosigan, too.
There is a collective noun for Hipsters, but you haven’t heard of it…
A Summer of Buffys
[if you read the comics, there’s already SO MANY Slayers…]
and “An Orgy of Anitas” but only after book 10…
A Ring of Covenants
An Abbey of Martins
A Cave of Merlins
A phoenix of zeframs.
An esprit of rockfords.
A hesitation of columbos.
A Pinch of Spocks
A victory of Archies (Goodwin)
A warren of Weasleys
A riot of Rons (Weasley)
A headful of Hermiones
A glut of Goliases (Silverlock)
A slurry of Silverlocks
A journo of Gullivers.
A modest of Swifts.
A thrust of Elvises.
A rap of Tupacs.
A truck of Fords.
An importance of Earnests.
A prophecy of Pauls.
An exasperation of McCoys (Dammit, Jim! I’m only a doctor!) and
An avalanche of Tribbles
A finality of Taltos
A flight of Turtles
A tumble of D’Alembert’s
An exposition of Harrington’s
A Stanza of Vogons
A Grimace of Adamas.
An Anarchy of Durdens
A Pop-in of Kramers
A handful of facepalms.
A Mess of Dirty Harrys
A flail of Cazaril’s. (Curse of Chalion)
A slackoff of Slothrops
An insouciance of Ignatius Reillys
A phalange of Frodos
A menace of MacBeths
[Deleted because remember what I said about not using real people, especially ones that have political implications? Yeah, that. — JS]
An Apparation of Potters (Harry)
A Collective of Galts (Atlas Shrugged).
An Infamy of Iagos.
A Madness of Leers.
A Kingdom of Richards.
A Confusion of Shep/p/ard/herds.
An Unsurviability of Dread Pirate Roberts.
A Strongness of Fezziks.
A Miracle of Maxs.
A Beauty of Buttercups.
An Improbability of Baron von Munchausens.
A Trusting of King Arthurs.
A Twisting of Mordreds.
A Gallant of Lancelots.
A Library of Hermiones.
A Pride of Aslans.
A Courage of Reepicheeps.
A dusting of Buffys
A chain of Taltoses
A snark of Loioshes
A movement of Cawtis
An eternity of Sethras…
An Arc of Starks
A Xyst of Xenas
A Stake of Slayers
A Disaster of Dresdens
A Pulse of Pikachus
A syllogism of Spocks
A viper of Baltars
A raft of Finns
Ooh! A courtesy of Jeeveses.
A determination of Vimeses
A steeliness of Sybils
An earnestness of Carrots
An oblivious of Twoflowers?
A twist of Olivers
A filch of Fagins
A donation of Cheerybles
A swing of Sykeses
A variety of Chameleons
A sacrifice of Imbris
A tantrum of Tandys
A (Brute) Squad of Fezziks
Since I already see several Incarnations, I’ll just go for two of them:
A Pair-adox of Chronos (never appearing in groups of three or more.)
A Murder of Thanatos
I have a good one for Nathan Fillion, but I’ll refrain from posting it due to rule 4.
This is fun!
A bottle of Haddocks (of the Captain variety)
A slaughter of Jokers
A mouthful of Lecters
A vengeance of Nemos
A post of Starkadders
An apophthegm of Bacons
A Controversy of Shakespeares
An ethernet of cables
A carriage wit of Sir Percys
An elusiveness of Pimpernels
A Pimpernel of Orczys
A pungency of herbals
A favrile of Tiffanys
A Kelmscott of Morrises
An ellipsis of Caens
A misery of Chekovs (the author, not the character)
A wit of Zelaznys
A delicate wit of Austens
A haughtiness of Nureyevs
A tree of nutcrackers
A habibi of raqs sharkis
A confusion of Bourbakis
A nightingale of battlefield nurses
A Milk of gay rights activists
A Castro of lesbians
A Mission of gays
An adventure of Asa Johnsons
A crack’d mirror of Shalotts
A teacup of Trelawneys
A Nampara of Poldarks
A storm of scavengers
A mothering of Mollys (Weasleys)
I’ll stop now…
I think a bumble of Woosters would be aided by an order of Jeeveses.
A Raven of Poes (real person, but long deceased…)
An unbelievability of R.O.U.S.s
Shouldn’t that be a Hunnypot of Poohs? ;)
A beard of Rikers (alternately, a lean of Rikers).
A Hunger of Hobbits
A Loneliness of Rangers (with apologies to bekabot).
A Vorga -OR- Vengeance of (Gully) Foyles. edit: ah! not the first! Good one, gottacook! I just finished rereading the book last night; probably my fiftieth reread…
A Failure of Rustys (Venture Bros.); could work for almost any character in the show.
One last one from me.
A sweetness of Kaylees (Firefly)
An Existentialism of Elrics
A Battle of Brandoch Dahas (The Worm Ouroborus)
A Murder of Vlads (Taltos)
Also, an Indifference of Ivans (from Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga)
I got stuck on Discworld, for some reason:
A smirk of Oggs
A run of Rincewinds
A glare of Weatherwaxes
A calamity of Luggages
A SQUEAK of Deaths Of Rats
A worldliness of Vimeses
A muddle of Magrats
A pustule of Nobbses
A flounder of Colons
A surprise of Lu-Tzes
A duty of Deaths
An anger of Susan Sto Helits
I’ll stop now…
A multi-dimmensional array of Rand Al’Thor’s. The multiple dimensions is to house his past lives.
A plethora of pointers to Forsaken
Linked List of Dark Ones
XML Schema of the One Power
A database of the Wheel of Time
A web service connecting the multiverses
— noncompilable, pseudo-code below.
myRand String [50]
myRandArray myRand
RandsPastLives myRandArray
Rather disappointed in the level of nerd hood here. you guys play at being nerds,but only techies are true nerds. The rest of you are wannabes. Learn how to code people.
Some Deryni ones:
A rule of Kelsons
A magic of Morgans
A devotion of Duncans
A secret of Arilans
A canon of Cambers
A tyrant of Festils
An incompetence of Imres
Well, now, what area of techiness and coding do you refer to?
A box-Shadow of Corwins
A blue-screen of Deaths
A network of Baker Street irregulars
A Byte of Draculas
A 404 of Edwin Droods
A gratitude of Frasers. (Constabular variety, of course.)
A tempest of Timelords.
A gravefull of redshirts.
A resurrection of Cylons
A flight of Targaryens.
A frigate of O’Brians
A monolith of Clarks
A foundation of Asimovs
An eternity of Longs
A dark and stormy night, but not too dark, because of the lightning, but not too stormy, because it was a bit in the distance, of Bulwer-Lyttons
Re: Sparkle of Edwards, I prefer a slaughter of Edwards and seduction of Louis’…or even an annoyance of Lestats, for that matter.
A lecturn of Norrells
An astonishment of Stranges
A deduction of Sherlocks
A hassle of Holmeses
A murder of Marples
A vertigo of Vorkosigans
A smorgasbord of Wolfes
A jihad of Muad’Dibs
A platitude of Poloniuses (Polononiae?)
A Bounty of Bobas
A fury of Fëanors
A thunder of Thors
A disappearance of Sozes
An offer of Corleones
A woah of Neos
A Deduction of Holmses
(surprised that one didn’t occur before)
It really ought to be: A Hammloading of Kirks
sorry mintwich, guess it already did !
demtriosx:
More Blake’s 7:
A sorry of Slaves
An eyepatch of Travises
A strong of Gans
That’s all I can think of.
A locutus of Borgs
A timeline of Doctors
An umbrella of Alice’s
An irregularity of Holmes
a slam of Vogons
a slaughter of Starks
a luncheon of hobbits
A bravado of Mercutios
A melee of d’Artagnans
A shopping bag of rebellious Vor
A Swallow of Walkers
An Amazon of Blacketts
A Wuzzy of Fuzzies
A Fascination of Vulcans
A befuddlement of Bluths
A fracas of Fünkes
A lubriciousness of Lucilles (or loose seals)
A bauble of Bob Loblaws
A blob of Bob Loblaw’s law blogs
A tempest of Prosperos
A humble of Heeps
A layon of Macduffs
A treachery of Wormtongues
An expectation of Pips
An honor of Prizzis
An Obscurity of Judes
A Snark of Beatrices (to go with the Banter of Benedicks/Benedicts)
A Kindred of Annes (With an “e!”)
A Pocketknife of MacGyvers
(More Pterry:)
A city of Vetinaris
A bundle of Moists
(Some Jacqueline Carey:)
A bedroom of Phedres
A sulking of Jocelins
(FFVI:)
A pack of Gaus
A (bench)press of Sabins
An invention of Edgars
A rune of Celeses
A summons of Terras
A picking of Lockes
A bowl of Umaros
A kupo of Mogs
A toss of Shadows
A thou of Cyans
A roll of Setzers
A gallery of Relms
A library of Stragos
A mimicry of Gogos
A Tuesday of Doctors (Doctor Who – if there’s more than one Doctor meddling around, it must be Tuesday, after all).
(reblogged this to http://poppycockpublishing.com/tammyjrizzo/todays-time-waster-literary-figure-collective-nouns-whatever/)
A jackpot of dinAlts
An angle of diGrizes
– both by same author
A harumph of Harshaws
A reel of Rhyslings
Just one more, I could not resist
A conniving of Black Adders
(to go with my post about Baldricks)
A Worry of Cherryh’s
A Nin of anais’
A Doom of Aunt Ada’s
A Gloom of Starkadders
Some more Tolkien-related ones:
A brilliance of Fëanors
A wisdom of Elronds
A bravery of Glorfindels
A despair of Túrins
A faithfulness of Finrods
A majesty of Valar
A compassion of Frodos
A deceitfulness of Sauron
A patience of Ents
And a couple relating to Year of the Griffin
An incompetence of Wermachts
An inventiveness of Derks
Alex@July 29, 2013 at 2:40 pm:
Personally I would have suggested “An opera of Celeses” but to each their own.
A bwa-ha-ha of Kefkas.
A Lifestream of Aerises.
An Aerie of Arryns.
A Dream of Sandmen
A Nose of Cyranos
An Escape of Platypi
A Gravity of Newtons
A Waterfall of Eschers
A lot of Alots
A trench of Peabodies (or Emmersons)
A bar of Callahans
A science of GLaDOS
A Xenocide of Enders
An Ejaculate of Mickey Sabbaths
A Mirror of Molly Millionses.
A Camp of Adam West Batmans
An Angst of Holdens
A Tattoo of Lisbeths
A Refrigerator of Gwen Stacys
a blaze of agnīnā́m
opps, miss the other
a silence of drones
An irony of Austen’s.
And along the same vein:
A meddle of Emmas
A curiosity of Catherines (Northanger Abbey)
A rationality of Elinors
An emotion of Mariannes
A wit of Elizabeths
A dance of Lydias
A sacrifice of Charlottes
A wisdom of Annes (persuasion)
A duplicity of Isabellas
A virtue of Fannys (Mansfield Park)
Switching genres:
An intrigue of Irenes
A violence of Violets (Copper Beeches / Solitary Cyclist )
A hysteria of Helens (Speckled Band)
A hospitality of Hudsons
A regret of Rachels (Musgrave Ritual)
A faith of Annies (Adventure of the Naval Treaty)
An escape of Elsies (Adventure of the Dancing Men)
A torment of Marys (Adventure of Abbey Grange)
A curiosity of Doras.
An Outbreak of Houdinis
I know he was a real person, But I really liked that one.
An Extermination of Daleks
An Acquisition of Roarkes
An Explosion of Mavis Freestones
A Babble of Bellaramas (also Freestone)
A Sourness of Somersets
A Persistence of Peabodys
A Laziness of Galahads (the cat)
And props to whoever it was that did a Caffenation of Dallases
@sophielandone
A shopping bag of rebellious Vor
I believe you mean “A shopping bag of people who piss off rebellious Vors”…
A Mob of Montags (Fahrenheit 451)
Lobby of Lolas (Lola Bunny)
Mosh of Mulders (X-files)
A Lust of Flashmans
or
An Embellishment of Flashmans
or
A Flight of Flashmans
An Insomnia of Macbeths
A Momentum of Miles (Vorkosigan)
An Interminability of Paarfis
A forest of Malcolms, a bloom of Leopolds, a flock of Finches, and a snowing of Golightlies.
an underestimation of Norvilles
a goodness of Gundersons
a rugful of Dudes
I already did an Apparation of Potters, here are some more
A Wand of Hermiones
A Chess of Rons
A Beard of Dumbledores
A Horror of Hagrids
A Snake of Snapes
A Dearth of Dudleys
A spike of Shrikes
A wallet of Kanes
A lamp of Tinkerbells
A biddy of Baby Janes
Some Les Miserables:
A barricade of Enjolras
A sacrifice of Eponines
A penalty of Javerts
A corruption of Thenardiers
I like the flexibility of an embarrassment of Jar-Jars: it applies equally to the individual and the plural.
Steve L@July 29, 2013 at 3:48 pm
I’ll take the opera of Celeses. How about a cackle of Kefkas?
An insurrection of Dondarrions
A swoon of Romance heroines
A balance of Liadens
A swashbuckling of pirates
A sanguinariness of vampires
A howl of werewolves
A blockade of Lydias (Skyrim)
A family of Tywins
A decimation of Reynes
A clash of kings
An Imagination of Calvins (and Hobbes-es)
An Oblique of Belisarii (if that is the proper plural of Belisarius!)
A Mutter of Valentinians
An enormity of Hradani/ A stubborn of Hradani (couldn’t decide which worked best)
A Week of Fridays. (RAH)
From Gormenghast: A Chorus of Groans
You call also have a Run! of Rincewinds
Some from Marvel comics
A Patriotism of Captains America
An Argument of Avengers
A Clatter of Iron Man armours
A Tantrum of Hulks
A terror of Black Widows (one of Natasha Romanov is scary enough – can you imagine the effect of more than one of her?)
A banquet of Asgardians (this is a variable noun, as Volstagg of the Warriors Three is probably quite capable of being a banquet all by himself)
An angst (single collective unit) of mutants – more than one of these becomes an angstrom and causes meltdowns in the space-time continuum and the boundaries of reality (any given Marvel continuity contains at least six angstrom of mutants, and more are found every week, hence the rather wobbly canon).
One from the books…
A Cold Comfort of Starkadders
And from the video games…
A bishie of Final Fantasy heroes
A kupo of moogles
A wark! of chocobos
As soon as I saw this I knew I had to do His Grace the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, but it’s taken me a while to think of one. And, thank goodness, it’s not been taken.
A vengeance of Vimes.
TRiG.
A gourmet of bytes.
A selection of nibbles (half a byte).
Death by a thousand bit slices.
A park full of log tables. (math).
An exaggeration of Scottys
A Flaw of Li Kaos
A Burden of Number Ten Oxes
A Jewel of Jade Pearls
A Terror of Key Rabbits
a majority of Major Majors
a dalliance of Bovaries
a migration of Joads
@Matt W
A Catch of Yossarions?
A Crash of Orrs?
A harem of Princess Leias
A Jar Jar of Wesley Crushers
A platoon of Ender Wiggens
Oooo! And a steaming pile of King Joffreys
A coward of Yossarians
A disappearance of Dunbars
A secret of Snowdens
A crab-apple of Orrs
A redundancy of Major Major Major Majors
Shouldn’t forget
A Royal of Flashman’s
A Starbelly of Sneetches
A Flamewar of Trolls
a Lateness of White Rabbits
a Beheading of Queens of Hearts
a Madness of Hatters
a Crutch of Tims (tiny)
An Obsession of Ahabs
A Cool of Zaphods
A Collapse of Marvins
An Overcast of Eeyores
An Exageration of Munchausens
A Swashbuckling of D’Artagnans
A Feast of Hobbits
A Stumbling of Rincewinds
An Irony of Hipsters.
A Chapter of Reverend Mothers
An Acre of Poohs
A Gable of Annes
A Prairie of Laura Ingalls Wilders
SFNal:
* An assembly of Susan Calvins
* A talent of Xanthians
Shakespearean:
* An excess of Falstaffs
* A muddle of Dogberrys
* A recitation of Holofernes
* An insinuation of Iagos
* Moor Aarons
Also:
* A spongregation of coonerisms
* A dusting of allergens
A Sneakfest of Ninjas
A Wandering of Diggers
An axiom of Raskolnikovs.
A riot of Riddicks
A bar of Callahans
A mope of Elrics
My humble additions:
A Flight of Gandalfs
A Faith of Sams (Gamgees, that is)
alternately:
A Friendship of Sams
A Humble of Hobbits
A Sting of Bilbos
A Desolation of Smaugs
A Finger of Frodos
A Ring of Wraiths
A Darkness of Saurons
A Breaking of Boromirs
alternately:
A Downfall of Boromirs
And a little rule-bending:
A Bilbo of Nemoys
A couple more:
A Scout of Supermen
A Brooding of Batmen
(alternately: A Colony of Batmen)
A Sephiroth of Sephiroths
A Distress of Zeldas (all the good Link ones were taken)
A Sty of Ganondorfs
A delusion of Dorians
A transfection of Idahos
A mischief of Pucks
Oooooh fun!
a smash of Hulks
an equation of Meg Murrys
a contradiction of Hellboys
a rebellion of Katnisses
a scheming of Artemis Fowls
a mischief of Anansis
A Murder of Starks
A Debt of Lannisters
A Madness of Targaryans
A Reap of Greyjoys
A Dusting of Buffys
A Soul of Angels
A monologue of Sheridans
A host of Ivanovas (just 1 nearly qualifies)
A Kosh of Koshes
A constellation of
A boom of Rainbow Dashes, or perhaps a race.
A paint-drying of Pinkie Pies
A recurrence of Lunas or Nightmare Moons.
A boast of Trixies
umm, that was A constellation of (any Greek mythological figure) but I used angle brackets so it disappeared.
A Deckard of Androids
A cCmndhd (Smith) of Waterhouses
A Drift of Reachers (Jack)
Still unclaimed in these parts:
A run of Logans (WFN)
A drift of Pooles (ACC)
A armful of O’Kelly-Davises
An ARMful of Hamiltons (LVCN)
Please
s/A arm/An arm/
in previous commentA switchblade of Bun-Buns.
An unpronounceable of XKCDs.
A strange loop of Hofstadters. (Douglas, not Leonard.)
A fascination of Spocks.
A Sheldon of Sheldons.
A Bag of Bagginses
A Perfect of Poppins (Mary)
A foot of Cinderellas
A boop of Fairy Godmothers (or a bobbity)
A carpet of Aladdins
A clap of Thundercats
A Boast of Gryffindors
An Archive of Ravenclaws
An Embrace of Hufflepuffs
A Fugue of Slytherins
(from my ballet hobby, since everything else has been mined!)
A Theft of Firebirds
A Weep of Giselles
and of course,
A Party of Claras
A Lupus of Houses (M.D.). Seems only fitting.
@Laur: It’s never Lupus. ;)
A Commander of Shepards
… I’m not even sorry.
A twirl of revolvers (as in the world revolves around me)
A Snot of Otolaryngologists
A Trend of Epidemiologists
A Crack of Chiropractors
A Smear of Gynecologists
A Callous of Podiatrists
A Cell of Hematologists
A Sequitur of Ethicists