Breizh Bretagne Llydaw Brittany: The Pardon of Notre Dame de Quelven

samedi 19 août 2006

What is the collective noun for clergy?

A surplice of clergy, a surplus of clergy?

At mardi, août 22, 2006 12:36:00 AM, Anonyme said...: A habitat of clergy?

Some from the web:

* a coaltion of clergy
* a gathering of clergy
* a group of clergy
* a synod of clergy
* a handful of clergy
and appropriately:
* a procession of clergy

but it appears there isn't an 'official' one, even they don't know themselves:

"My Concise Oxford English Dictionary has a wonderful appendix of terms for groups of animals etc. Some of them for things you’ve never heard of or would never conceive of in a thousand years (a fling of dunlins?!) But though they suggest a superfluity of nuns (somewhat unfairly, since you can never find one when you need one) there’s no collective noun listed for a group of clergy. A convocation? A disagreement? And so we are left with uncertainty even about what to call ourselves."

http://www.godspell.org.uk/wordpress/2004/07/15/a-parliament-of-rooks/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_by_subject_A-H

Breizh Bretagne Llydaw Brittany