I want to know who made up these patently artifical terms for groups of animals. For example, “a murder of crows” or (as in this thread, a “parliament of ravens.”
Things like “a pack of wolves” and “a flock of birds” obviously have a long history in the English language. However, I’ve always assumed that some pretentious Victorian made these up. I can’t find the evidence for that cited anywhere, but I assume that someone out there in Doperland knows.
And JFTR, I heard something on the radio that made me think of this, looked it up on the SDMB, and was surprised to see that related thread that started yesterday, even if it didn’t address my question…