AN EXALTATION OF LARKS (Ultimate Edition) is the culmination of more than two decades of Lipton’s research of “nouns of multitude,” which he prefers to call “terms of venery.”

Many of these terms are commonplace: plague of locusts, pride of lions, litter of pups. Imagine, though, hearing these expressions for the first time. Lipton invites us to “sharpen our senses by restoring the magic to the mundane.”

Lipton traced a number of these terms back to the 1400s, specifically to THE BOOK OF ST. ALBANS, printed in 1486. In addition to today’s ordinary terms, he discovered some that had a fresh sound, precisely because they had not made the 500-year journey to our modern era.

Lipton identifies six sources of inspiration for the terms. He lists these “Families” with the following examples:

1. Onomatopoeia: a murmuration of starlings, a gaggle of geese.

2. Characteristic (by far the largest Family): a leap of leopards, a skulk of foxes.

3. Appearance: a knot of toads, a parliament of owls.

4. Habitat: a shoal of bass, a nest of rabbits.

5. Comment (pro or con depending on viewpoint): a richness of martens, a cowardice of curs.

6. Error (in transcription or printing; sometimes preserved for centuries): “school” of fish was originally intended to be “shoal.”

amazon.com