Animal Idioms – Can you work them out? vol.2

覚えてますか？以前の記事

Hi everyone,

Back in April I posted about groups of animals in English, getting up to “G” in the alphabet, so now let’s continue this weird foray into English starting of with “H”.

動物・海洋生物の群れを使ったイディオムなど

• A cackle of Hyenas…
  This one makes sense because in English “cackle” means laugh, and that is exactly what hyenas do.
  
  

  Hyenas

• A shadow of Jaguars…
  Jaguars are cats, and reclusive ones at that so this one makes sense also.
  
  

  Jaguar

• A smack of jellyfish...
  a smack in this context means a taste or flavor, especially a slight flavor distinctive or suggestive of something.
  For example: The chicken had just a smack of garlic. I guess jellyfish touch you slightly and very gently, so this is how they get their group name…?
  
  

  jellyfish

• A mob of kangaroos…
  Kangaroos like to box and a bunch of them together boxing I can picture that.

Let’s skip to “O” and find a parliament of owls.
Parliament means a meeting or assembly for a conference on public or national affairs… in other words a meeting of politicians.
Owls look wise and are probably more wise than any politician. True words?

• Stingrays – a fever of stingrays…
  I am not sure why a group of stingrays is called a fever, because they actually look like a bunch of tablecloths.
  

  Stingrays

• Swans in a group are called a bevy or game, but if they are flying they are called a wedge.
  A wedge is triangular in shape and as swans fly in a triangular shape together, they garner this name.
• “W” now and let’s look at wolves.
  A “pack” of wolves is the term and pack means a group of certain animals of the same kind, especially predatory ones… so a pack of wolves, a pack of sharks etc.

Lastly “Z”…

• a “zeal” – this means a bunch of zebras.
  

Zebras

Some weird names for all of these animals, we don’t know why but we use these names anyway… Most native speakers will be surprised if you quiz them with these names!
Go ahead and test them!

フルーツフルイングリッシュで英語表現の楽しさ感じてください 。初めての方には英作文添削チケット2回分をプレゼント。
「無料英語テスト800問（解説付）」メルマガも大人気。今すぐチェック！

Rodd

長く日英翻訳に携わっており、どうすれば英語として自然かをうまく説明できる人気の講師！間違うことを恐れず、まずは書くことが大切であるというのをポリシーにしています。
座右の銘は「Never be afraid to always try new things and places, and enjoy life to its fullest.」