Aloha,
During a recent, mostly frivoulous, discussion a colleague asked me
about marine collective nouns. I suddenly realised that I didn't know
of any accepted collective nouns for single species or multispecies
aggregations of worms. I've always used generalised (e.g. aggregation)
or structure specific (e.g. mat) terms. That night we decided on a
'wiggle' of worms for a multispecies multitude. I searched annelida
archives and didn't find any reference to collective nouns. Online I found:
bed, bunch, clat, clew (http://mindprod.com/jgloss/collectivenouns.html)
knot, bryce
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_for_fish,_invertebrates,_and_plants)
and other circular references to these. I saw clew and knot reported
most commonly, but as I've never heard a wormer use those terms in any
but a nautical sense I'm doubtful. Is there an accepted collective
noun? Should there be? Does anyone use one?
Cheers,
Brian
