Versatility

A group of hippopotamuses or hippopotami or hippos (they are all correct) is called a pod, a herd, a dale, or a bloat, although they answer to none of these.

When Lola was very little, while watching some animal show, she asked me what a hippo critter was, wondering if the 2 tonne charging beast on the LCD was indeed such a thing.

I had to explain that a lot of words in English that sound similar are in fact unrelated and that the word hypocrite derives from ancient Greek word for acting, not a over-sized swimming horse.

The hippo’s closest living relative is the whale, which explains the ‘pod’.

The ‘herd’ makes sense since they are sort of horse like and hang around in bunches.

And ‘bloat’ is self explanatory.

It’s the ‘dale’ that confuses me. I must recuse myself to my own explanation and assume that these collective nouns were fabricated by a bunch of Victorian hypocrites.