bevy

English

WOTD – 11 August 2012

Etymology

From Middle English bevey, of uncertain origin, possibly Anglo-Norman.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛvi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: bevvy

Noun

bevy (plural bevies)

1. (collective) A group of animals, in particular quail.
2. (collective) A small group of persons, especially of girls and women.
   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 365:

     The same messenger who summoned the whole bevy of renegades, Dover, Peterborough, Murray, Sunderland, and Mulgrave, could just as easily have summoned Clarendon.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), pages 22–23:

     The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

3. (collective) A large group or collection.
   • 2017 January 12, Brian Fung, “Why AT&T’s top execs visited Trump Tower”, in The Washington Post‎^[2]:

     Thursday's session makes AT&T the latest high-profile company to meet with Trump after the president-elect's series of job-related talks with firms such as Softbank, Carrier and a bevy of tech companies including Google, Facebook and Apple.

Translations

large group of birds

• Armenian: երամ (hy) (eram), տարմ (hy) (tarm)
• Bulgarian: ято (bg) n (jato)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 群 (zh) (qún)

• Czech: hejno (cs) n
• Dutch: zwerm (nl) m, vlucht (nl) f, schare (nl) f
• Finnish: parvi (fi)
• French: vol (fr), passée (fr)
• German: Schwarm (de) m, Schar (de) f
• Hungarian: csapat (hu)
• Italian: stormo (it), volata (it), passo (it)
• Japanese: 群れ (ja) (むれ, mure)
• Occitan: banda (oc) f, bandada f
• Portuguese: bando (pt) m
• Romanian: stol (ro) n
• Russian: ста́я (ru) f (stája)
• Spanish: bandada (es)
• Swedish: flock (sv)
• Turkish: kuş sürüsü

group of persons

• Czech: houf (cs) m, skupina (cs) f
• Russian: ста́йка (ru) f (stájka)
• Spanish: grupo (es) m

large group or collection

• Armenian: խումբ (hy) (xumb), հավաքույթ (hy) (havakʻuytʻ)
• Dutch: hoop (nl) m, troep (nl) m, schare (nl) f
• German: Schar (de) f
• Hungarian: sereg (hu), csapat (hu), csoport (hu), (egy) sor (hu), tömeg (hu), sokaság (hu)
• Portuguese: bando (pt) m
• Russian: собра́ние (ru) n (sobránije), колле́кция (ru) f (kollékcija)
• Spanish: coleccion
• Turkish: sürü (tr)

Further reading

• “bevy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.