Progression

covey (KUV-ee) noun

covey (KUV-ee) noun

1. A small flock of birds such as partridge or quail.

2. A group or a set.

[From Middle English, from Old French covee (brood), feminine past participle of cover (to incubate, hatch), from Latin cubare (to lie down). Some other words in this brood that all came from the same Latin root are cubicle, incubate, couvade, and concubine.]

"A black-tailed jackrabbit walks slowly down the wash, ambling tall-eared amid a covey of Gambel's quail, like a cowboy driving his herd."
Steve Howe; The Kingdom of the Cactus; Backpacker (Emmaus, Pennsylvania); Sep 1, 1995.

This week's theme: collective nouns.

   

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http://wordsmith.org/words/covey.html

Posted by Keya at September 13, 2005 07:12 PM