Word: 1400s
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...antique engravings to illustrate the text, the author deftly deals with the genesis (and sometimes the subsequent exodus from the language) of more than 100 collective nouns (a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a skulk of foxes, a labor of moles), most of which began in the 1400s in England as precise terms of venery. Happily, the collection has continued to grow during the intervening centuries: a shrivel of critics, an unction of undertakers (which, in larger groups, becomes an extreme unction of undertakers), and a swish of hairdressers. Etymology has seldom been pursued with more charm, literacy...