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What do you call a bunch of folkies?

08 Feb 99 - 12:14 PM (#57658)
Subject: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Peter T.

I know, apart from various obscenities. But what is the collective? A collective of folkies (no!) A festival of folkies? A charivari of folkies? A charabanc of folkies? A collusion (collision) (collation) of folkies?

All I know is that a bunch of geese on the ground are a gaggle, and when they are in the air, they are a skein. (a collective thread of sorts)

Yours, Peter T.


08 Feb 99 - 12:24 PM (#57663)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: rick fielding

I've always thought I belonged to a "NURDSWORTH" of folkies.


08 Feb 99 - 01:02 PM (#57672)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: MMario

I would think "a Harmongy of folkies" would do....

MMario


08 Feb 99 - 01:11 PM (#57674)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From:

A hootnanny of folkies

Bob S.


08 Feb 99 - 01:18 PM (#57679)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Bert

a Phew.


08 Feb 99 - 01:22 PM (#57681)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Alice

a session of folkies
a circle of folkies
a potluck of folkies
a conglomeration of folkies
a gathering of folkies
a campfire of folkies
a churchbasement of folkies
a porchful of folkies
a reminiscence of folkies
a falala of folkies
a chord of folkies
?????


08 Feb 99 - 01:36 PM (#57683)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Bert

A falala - I love it Alice.


08 Feb 99 - 01:41 PM (#57684)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Kernow John

A meeting of alchoholics anonymous
Baz


08 Feb 99 - 03:00 PM (#57690)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Pete M

Hell no Baz, that implies we've sworn off the booze!

A conviviality perhaps? A minzapint ? A lechery?

Pete M


08 Feb 99 - 03:08 PM (#57693)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Barry Finn

Ah, when you get that many folkies together people get scared & call it a revival. Barry


08 Feb 99 - 03:48 PM (#57697)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: The Shambles

A Moan?


08 Feb 99 - 03:50 PM (#57698)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: RWilhelm

Kumbayologists


08 Feb 99 - 05:19 PM (#57705)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Allan C.

An exaltation of folkies


08 Feb 99 - 05:36 PM (#57707)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Lonesome EJ

A Clusterfolk?


08 Feb 99 - 05:50 PM (#57710)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From:

Utah Phillips once defined a folksinger as a person who sang by ear through the nose. Crew of Nose Warblers? Nest of Nasal Nightingales?


08 Feb 99 - 06:39 PM (#57713)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Paul G.

Around here we're a Folk Flock.


08 Feb 99 - 07:03 PM (#57715)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Barbara

a capella of singers an anarchy of folkies


08 Feb 99 - 07:11 PM (#57717)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Alice

I'm kind of liking a chord of folkies... kind of like a cord of wood.


08 Feb 99 - 07:26 PM (#57720)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Sandy Paton

There's also a flocculus* or a floc of folkies.

*flocculus: a small loosely aggregated mass

I'm voting for the chord, however, especially as a play on "cord" = 4 X 4 X 8. (See "What does a Mudcatter look like" thread.)

Sandy, here at the computer when he should be on the treadmill.


08 Feb 99 - 10:02 PM (#57729)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: bill mcgowan

my wife calls us a bunch of old fogies


08 Feb 99 - 10:18 PM (#57730)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Slider (inactive)

How about a nostalgium of folkies?


08 Feb 99 - 11:00 PM (#57736)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Les B

Alice, a chord of folkies is pretty apt. I might also suggest a jam of folkies.


09 Feb 99 - 12:22 AM (#57749)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Don Meixner

An unemployment of Folkies

A lament of Folkies

A squabble Of Folkies ( You should be at a meeting of my Folk Club)

A Round of... A fugue of... A refrain of... A Key of...

The choices are endless.

Don


09 Feb 99 - 12:26 AM (#57750)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: catspaw49

MUDCAT

catspaw


09 Feb 99 - 12:32 AM (#57753)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Art Thieme

A condom of folkies


09 Feb 99 - 12:36 AM (#57755)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: katlaughing

How 'bout a "confabulation" or "confab" for short?

Or, a "passle" of folkies; a council (sounds too official!); a convergence ( as in harmonic convergence, remember?);

my Thesaurus has an old colloquial term of "gemot or gemote";

a conventicle sounds cool;

a troop; a covey; a string of folkies; a corps; a legion; mob; host; horde; rabble; heap.

What fun! Thanks!

kat


09 Feb 99 - 01:02 AM (#57760)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Sandy Paton

The old Jacobite song "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation" is using the same word as Kat's "passel of folkies" -- seems appropriate, somehow.

Sandy


09 Feb 99 - 04:13 AM (#57774)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai

Don M: along the lines of your 'squabble', round here it's a Malcontent of Folkies.


09 Feb 99 - 12:04 PM (#57828)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Peter T.

Kumbayologists ranks the highest on my laugh meter! A friend suggests (along the same lines) Stewballeros. Another, who does not much like folk music suggests: "Band Musicians that Rowed Away from the Titanic and Lived to Sing About It". More of a definition than a collective.

Yours, Peter T.


09 Feb 99 - 04:12 PM (#57859)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: harpgirl

Heck I call em often! harpgirl


09 Feb 99 - 11:19 PM (#57919)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Jerry Friedman

A scare.


10 Feb 99 - 10:39 AM (#57980)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Alice

an 'altogethernow'
a 'one-more-time'
By the way, did you know that a 'school' of fish comes from a misprint of the word 'shoal'? Shoals of fish are of course common in folk lyrics, but today the word 'school' is common, but only because 'shoal' was misspelled and the word 'school' came into use. Really. I do NOT have my tongue in cheek. Christy the Wordsmith told me, and she is always right when it comes to word origins.


10 Feb 99 - 10:47 AM (#57981)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Peter T.

I learned how to spell it properly in shoal.

(not very good, but who can resist?) yours, Peter T.


10 Feb 99 - 11:00 AM (#57984)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Alice

very punny, Peter... you went to the same shoal as Art, didn't you


10 Feb 99 - 11:57 AM (#57989)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Steve Parkes

Interesting, Alice. I suspect that the two words have a common origin, but "school" was a northern English (Viking) word, while "shoal" was a southern English (Anglo-Saxon) word. Well, when I say Viking and Anglo-Saxon, take that with a pinch of salt - all those waves of invaders, and such a long time ago!

But "skirt" and "shirt" have the same sort of origin (originally meaning "tunic"), and words like "brigg" are still common in Scotland, while "bridge" is the form in England.

Educational, isn't it?

Steve

P.S. How about a bunk of folchies?


10 Feb 99 - 12:19 PM (#57992)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Bert

We are such a diverse crowd that we need more than one term.

Muckle Mudcateers
A Gargle of Yodellers
A Coppice of Carol Singers
A cargo of Shanty Singers
A Remuda of Country Singers
A Bar of blues singers
A Paucity if Pipers (wishful thinking here)
An Archive of Old Fogeys
and I suppose that a collection of Art's fans could be called 'A Muse'

Bert.


10 Feb 99 - 02:46 PM (#58000)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Mudjack

I usually refer to "my folkie friends" and the non-folkies think I'm a communist or invironnmentalist. So I usually reply, "Thats right comrade, let's go save a tree." But the closer to the real truth is Folkies are flower children who have finally reached maturity. I kinda life old fogey folkies. Jack the mostly folk guy.... aka almost folkie?


10 Feb 99 - 03:21 PM (#58005)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Alice

bert, very amusing. liked it


10 Feb 99 - 03:46 PM (#58011)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Pete M

Well Alice, I think Christy the wordsmith ought to do better research. Like many words on English, "school" is an example of a word which has more than one meaning and origin.

The OED gives the following derivations

School as in learning and pupils derives from the Greek skhole meaning philosophy etc, via the latin schola meaning school, and the Old English scol

School as in shoal of fish is a Middle English collective noun for fish deriving from Middle Dutch schole

I think is clear that the prununciation of "Schole" has given rise to Shoal, whilst its spelling led to school.

Shoal it self is of course another example, Shoal ground is a quite different meaning from a shoal of herring!

Ah the joys of English!

Pete M


11 Feb 99 - 06:23 PM (#58240)
Subject: RE: What do you call a bunch of folkies?
From: Jerry Friedman

Not quite, Pete. It's the pronunciation of "schole" that gave us "school" of fish.

"Shoal" of fish is from Anglo-Saxon "scolu", a multitude. The palatalization of the c sound (c goes to ch, sc goes to sh) is common in English, not Dutch. The Middle Ductch word "schole" is related to "scolu", but in Dutch the pronunciation didn't change--still like sk.

A related example is English "ship" and Dutch "schip" (pronounced like "skip"), whence "schipper" (the person in charge), whence our word "skipper", keeping the Dutch pronunciation. We kept both the pronunciation (sort of) and spelling in "schipperke", meaning "little captain", a Dutch breed of dog.

To strain for folk relevance--Scots often didn't palatalize where Southern English did, so Scots has "kirk" for "church", "whilk" for "which", etc.

The quiz will be next week.