Alan Bradwell wrote:
>i have been reading recently about what people call thier collection of
 
>ferrets and i was just wondering if 'business' is the real collective
>name for a group of ferrets?  like a pride of lions, a murder of crowes
>and a school of fish.
 
As was stated a week ago here in the FML, (Issue 3728) a group of ferrets
is called a 'busyness of ferrets'.  Busyness spelled with an 'i' is
acceptable (And the most common listing), but not the most correct.
(Most 'collective noun' lists, list 'bus[i]ness' but they are incorrect.
At one time I found a site that led me to believe that 'bus[y]ness' was
most correct, but for the life of me, I cannot find it again.)
 
More 'group names' (Collective nouns) can be found at:
 
http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/
http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/r?a=nouns
http://www.lizzie.net/html/collect.htm
http://lonestar.texas.net/~rferrell/collects2.html
 
Or..if you would like a commercial collection of Collective Nouns,
Here is Amazon's listing:
 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810321882/
avsearch-bkasin-20/002-7575352-6351263
 
For Our Ferrets
 
MC, The Rude One
(With Snorkle, Tuzigoot, Bancho, and Artemus.  In spirit, Bubba,
Billy-Bob, and Garret)
[Posted in FML issue 3737]