Also known as company terms, terms of venery are words used to describe specific groups of animals of the same species, such as "a flock of sheep" or "a skulk of foxes." One may also include in this category any word that describes the specific demographic varieties of a species, such as what the adult male, adult female, newborn young, and adolescent young are called, and in some cases what a neutered male of the species is called. A male falcon is a tiercel, for instance, while a newly hatched falcon is an eyas.
The word "venery" simply means "hunting," and the most significant and extensive list of English terms of venery is found in the 1486 publication titled Book of Saint Albans, most of which was written by Dame Juliana Berners, the prioress of the Benedictine Priory of St. Mary of Sopwell, near Saint Albans in Hertfordshire. Dame Juliana translated the list and an accompanying essay on hunting into English and set it to poetic meter, basing it on the French Le Art de Venerie by Guillaume Twici, a huntsman.
reQuest 2018