Thursday, April 12, 2007

PoK: Plural Nouns, Part I

Plural Nouns Part I


Parts 2-20 may or may not ever happen. For each of the following animals, list the proper name for a group of animals. Example: cow=>herd. Some have more than one right answer. Got it? Bonus: name the name for a young animal of each type.

1)Rhinoceros

2)Goose

3)Ant

4)Lion

5)Whale

6)Crow

7)Rook (the bird, not the chess piece)

8)Raven

9)Badger

10)Hyena

Answers from PoK:Pomegranates

1) What does the word 'pomegranate' mean and in what language?
Kari did best here, with 'Apple of Grains' - pomme is Latin/French for apple, and granate is grains or seeds. Seedy apple. I actually almost asked for the bonus question to name states or people with the pomegranate as their symbol, but I thought nobody would get it - so good on you, Kari! the rest of you were pretty close, too.

2) What gem derives its name from the similarity in color to the fruit?
Nice job, it was garnet.

3) What modern weapon derives its name from the similarity in shape to the fruit? This one was maybe a little obvious, but it's pretty cool, no? First attested usage comes from 1523

4) Under what conditions will pomegranate juice turn blue?
Those of you who guessed acid were on the right track, but headed the wrong direction. Alkaline conditions will turn it blue. Which provides for some amusing imaginary MacGuyver moments where you need to know whether you can drink from a lake but all you have to test it with is a pomegranate.

5) In Greek Mythology, who is famous for eating a pomegranate and what were the consequences of that action?
Yup, Persephone, and it's why we have winter

Bonus: Name two health benefits of pomegranate juice.
Obviously, some of these are more provable than others, so everybody gets credit, even (perhaps especially) Michelle.

For Kari's bonus question, I agree with Maren - do it in a bowl of water & strain them out. Are we right?

4 comments:

Disco Mom said...

Well at least I can get the easy ones first on this one, and leave the hard ones for others, though it's so fun to guess:
1. rhino - herd
2. goose- gaggle
3. ant - farm
4. lion - den
5. whale - school
6. crow - crew
7. rook - family
8. raven - kindness
9. badger - bluster
10. hyena - quorum
Bonus:
Rhino - calf
goose - gosling
ant - antsy!
lion - cub
whale - calf
crow - chick
rook - ricky-rook
raven - that's so raven!
badger - pup
hyena - pup

Maren said...

1. Herd of rhinoceri, calf
2. Gaggle of geese, gosling
3. Army of ants, baby
4. Pride of lions, kitten
5. Pod or gam of whales, calf
6. Murder of crows, crowlet?
7. don't know
8. Flock of ravens, chick
9. Family of badgers, badgerino?
10. Pack of hyenas, pup

See, my training in reading naptime stories comes in handy! Dave, do you have "A Cache of Jewels", too?

Anonymous said...

All I can add is that it is a parliment of rooks, and an unkidness of ravens.
Thank you Mr. Gaiman

Anonymous said...

howdy just droppin in...
its actually a crash of rhinos...thats wat ive always read but i guess it could also be a herd