Chapter Nucta to Nunc Dimittis of N by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

ants, etc.; shelves, etc.
   Nursery of trees, shrubs, etc.
   Pack of hounds, playing cards, grouse, etc.
   Panel of jurymen.
   Pencil of rays, etc.
   Pile of books, wood stacked, etc.
   Posse (a sheriff's). Posse (2 syl.).
   Pride of lions.
   Rabble of men ill-bred and ill-clad.
   Regiment (A) of soldiers.
   Rookery of rooks and seals, also of unhealthy houses.
   Rouleau of money.
   School of whales, etc.
   Set of china, or articles assorted.
   Shoal of mackerel.
   Shock of hair, corn, etc.
   Skein of ducks, thread, worsted.
   Skulk of foxes.
   Society (A). Persons associated for some mutual object.
   Stack of corn, hay, wood (piled together).
   String of horses.
   Stud of mares.
   Suit of clothes.
   Suite of rooms.
   Swarm of bees, locusts, etc.
   Take of fish.
   Team of oxen, horses, etc.
   Tribe of goats.

Numbers Odd Numbers. “Numero Deus impare gaudet” (Virgil: Eclogues, viii. 75). Three indicates the “beginning, middle, and end.” The Godhead has three persons; so in classic mythology Hecate had threefold power; Jove's symbol was a triple thunderbolt, Neptune's a sea-trident, Pluto's a three-headed dog; the Fates were three, the Furies three, the Graces three, the Horae three; the Muses three-times- three. There are seven notes, nine planets, nine orders of angels, seven days a week, thirteen lunar months, or 365 days a year, etc., five senses, five fingers on the hand and toes on the foot, five vowels, five continents, etc. etc. A volume might be filled with illustrations of the saying that “the gods delight in odd numbers.” (See Odd, Nine. )

Numbers To consult the Book of Numbers is to call for a division of the House, or to put a question to the vote. (Parliamentary wit.)

Numbers Pythagoras looked on numbers as influential principles.
   1 is Unity, and represents Deity, which has no parts.
   2 is Diversity, and therefore disorder. The principle of strife and all evil.
   3 is Perfect Harmony, or the union of unity and diversity.
   4 is Perfection. It is the first square (2 × 2 = 4).
   5 is the prevailing number in Nature and Art.
   6 is Justice (Perfect Harmony being 3, which multiplied by Trinity = 6).
   7 is the climacteric number in all diseases. Called the Medical Number (2 syl.).
   2. The Romans dedicated the second month to Pluto, and the second day of the month to the Manes. They believed it to be the most fatal number of all.
    4 and 6 are omitted, not being prime numbers; 4 is the multiple of 2, and 6 is the multiple of 3.

Numerals All our numerals and ordinals up to a million (with one exception) are Anglo-Saxon. The one exception is the word Second, which is French. The Anglo-Saxon word was other, as First, Other, Third, etc. Million is the Latin millio (-onis).
    There are some other odd exceptions in the language: Spring, summer, and winter are native words, but autumn is Latin. The days of the week are native words, but the names of the months are Latin. We have daeg, monath, gear; but minute is Latin, and hour is Latin through the French.
   Numerals (Greek). (See Episemon.)

Numero Homme de numero - that is “un homme fin en affaires. ” M. Walckenaer says it is a shop phrase, meaning that he knows all the numbers of the different goods, or all the private marks indicative of price and quality.

“Il n'etoit lors, de Paris jusqu a Rome,
Galant qui sut si bien le namero.”
La Fontaine: Richard Minutolo.

Numidicus Quintus Caecilius Metellus, commander against Jugurtha, of Numidia, about 100 B.C.

Nunation Adding N to an initial vowel, as Nol for Ol[iver], Nell for Ell[en], Ned for Ed[ward].

Nunc Dimittis The canticle of Simeon is so called, from the first two words in the Latin version (Luke ii. 29-32).