Synonym for troupe

[DaveC426913]

I've checked thesauri and asked AI and I just cannot find the right word.

This is a story set in pre-history (20,000BCE), about a group (~ dozen) of children and youths between 4 and 14 who are fleeing their village.


I'm 16,000 words in and still no joy.

I am frequently writing how this person or that person catches up to the X, or how the X camped for the night.

The children would be great except they're not all children. And youths-and-children is too awkward.
Troupe is about right but it sounds too modern.
Same with party, company and band.
It's not a tribe (it's a fragment of a tribe).
Likewise clan.
Group is too generic.
Fellowship, of course, has been used.


I've checked synonyms for each of those words too.

Help?


Can I use brood to refer to the whole group of children and youths - even if the youths are the de facto leaders? It's kind of synonymous with family, but is it in the right way?

 

[DaveC426913]

Actually, pack or herd would fit perfectly with the pre-history vibe, but pack is too predatory and herd is too ... er ... prey-atory.

What about more neutral animal groups?

But it has to stand alone. If it requires "of kids" tacked on, then I'm no better off.
So, I can't say "he made his way back to the bevy of children".

 

[symbolipoint]

You idea of "band" could work. Not by any checking of dictionary or thesarus; just by my best senses. Maybe gang? Maybe crew? How many in the group? Would congregation work for you?

 

[symbolipoint]

Another possible word choice, but again only through my own sense without checking word references: Company?

 

[DaveC426913]

I.... addressed these in the OP. Those are all too modern.

Think Clan of the Cave Bear. You wouldn't say "Thag returned to the cave and greeted the gang"

 

[BillTre]

Gang?
Doesn't have to be criminal. Like lets go gang.

 

[Ibix]

I think you're looking for "troop", not "troupe", by the way. Troop can be monkeys or soldiers, but troupe is performers or actors.

If you don't like troop, what are the collective nouns for chimps/gorillas etc?

 

[fresh_42]

Community, College, Collective, Companionship, Camaraderie, Team, Kibbutz, Komsomol, Conspirators.

It all depends on the touch you want to give this group.

 

[pinball1970]

Company, fellowship. For me "group" is still best

 

[pinball1970]

"Breakaways" The Breakways not bad for a Title either.

 

[jack action]

I put the OP in ChatGPT and got this:

"Brood" usually implies offspring from the same parent(s) (young animals or children of one family) and reads as diminutive — it would suggest they're all siblings or of a single household, so it risks unintended meaning for a mixed group of refugees with teen leaders.

Better options that fit prehistory and your tone:

• cohort — neutral, slightly formal, works for a set age-range or comrades on a shared journey.
• cohort of children / a juvenile cohort — if you want an age-based term.
• ragged cohort / ragged troop — adds tone while keeping an archaic feel.
• remnant — emphasizes they're a fragment of a larger group (e.g., "the remnant of the village").
• remnant of children / the village remnant — clear and evocative.
• the young remnant — concise and meaningful.
• nest — poetic, implies youth/offspring but can be used metaphorically.
• clutch — like brood but used metaphorically for a small group of young.
• the stripped-down band / the broken band — keeps "band" but qualifies it as fractured/prehistoric.
• broodling(s) — archaic/diminutive if you want a harsh, dehumanizing narrator voice.
• fledglings — metaphorical, indicates youths learning to fly (grow up) and can highlight coming-of-age.
• ganglet / small gang — informal, slightly anachronistic but usable in voice.

Recommended choices:

• If you want to stress they're survivors of a larger people: "the remnant" or "the village remnant."
• If you want an age-based collective with neutral tone: "cohort" (or "juvenile cohort").
• If you want a poetic/ancient flavor: "nest," "clutch," or "fledglings."
• If you want to keep a prehistoric feel but acknowledge fracture: "the broken band" or "the ragged band."

Example usages:

• "He caught up to the remnant, ten children and three youths huddled under the cliff."
• "She tightened her grip on the fledglings as they pressed into the thicket."
• "They camped for the night with the ragged cohort clustered around the ash."

Pick one consistent term for narration (or two alternating with purpose: e.g., "remnant" when emphasizing loss, "fledglings" when emphasizing youth).

 

[Rive]

Flock?

 

[DaveC426913]

I put the OP in ChatGPT and got this:

Remnant is really interesting.

 

[DaveC426913]

Flock?

I thought of flock, but too many religious and patriarchal overtones. A flock implies a shepherd.

 

[DaveC426913]

I think you're looking for "troop", not "troupe", by the way. Troop can be monkeys or soldiers, but troupe is performers or actors.

Yes, I was aware of that. I think they have more in common with a ragtag group of travelling performers than with a troop of soldiers. I might have accepted "troupe" but my readers might not.

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, I was aware of that. I think they have more in common with a ragtag goup of travelling performers than with a troop of soldiers. I might have accepted "troupe" but my readers might not.

That sounds like a "bunch of". I would prefer Collective or College, but ragtag sounds like a bunch. And there will always be the possibility to create a name, or take one from another language. How about Résistance?

 

[DaveC426913]

That sounds like a "bunch of". I would prefer Collective or College, but ragtag sounds like a bunch. And there will always be the possibility to create a name, or take one from another language. How about Résistance?

They're subarctic stone age children and youths. A good collective noun would be named after an animal.

I found a list but none of them are suitable. (Even if I find a good word, it often does not stand on its own. I'm not sure it sounds right to say "he caught up to the herd" without appending "of children", which defeats the purpose.)

I am beginning to think I am trying too hard. My contrivances may sound unnatural to the ear.

Maybe I should go back to tribe.

Thing is, I use tribe already to great effect. They gather the younger children into groups: Red-wing Tribe, Slither Tribe, Shell-Walker Tribe. This gives the children a sense of belonging and companionship.

But it also vastly eases my job as writer and yours as reader by optimizing the number of entities to keep track of.

Saying "The children foraged in the field" reduces them to anonymity, and "Farn, Nai, Orsk, Nor, Tar, Serk, Lun, Tal and little Ela foraged in the field" is a mouthful. But "Red-wing Tribe, Slither Tribe and Shell-Walker Tribe" or "the three Tribes" foraged in the field is ideal.

Perhaps I can come up with another word for the children groups. Clan would be nice but it is a comparatively modern concept.

 

[fresh_42]

Clan would be nice but it is a comparatively modern concept.

Uhm, what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_clan#History

 

[DaveC426913]

Uhm, what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_clan#History

Yes, about 21,500 years too modern for my story.

"pre-history 20,000BCE" (p1), "Clan of the Cave Bear" (p5), "subarctic stone age" (p17)

(Does anyone read anymore?? Not just you - symbolipoint also covered old ground in posts 2 and 3)

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, about 21,500 years too modern for my story.

(Does anyone read OPs anymore??)

I did, but I had really difficulties remembering how it was back then. I thought some 1000 to 2000 years was "old" enough. Maybe you should start from scratch: what is the main defining property of such a group? If it is "fleeing the village", then refugees or fugitives might be appropriate.

 

[DaveC426913]

Maybe you should start from scratch: what is the main defining property of such a group? If it is "fleeing the village", then refugees or fugitives might be appropriate.

Yes, and then I should define it in imagery of their time - literal, and usually animal-based. But "stampeding herd" doesn't sound right.

 

[fresh_42]

Just a note: You date your story back to 20,000 BC. However, the Neolithic Revolution that is necessary to attach a meaning to the word village, first took place around 9,000 BC. Your timescale has a flaw.

 

[DaveC426913]

Just a note: You date your story back to 20,000 BC. However, the Neolithic Revolution that is necessary to attach a meaning to the word village, first took place around 9,000 BC. Your timescale has a flaw.

Yes. By definition and necessity, any pre-historic story being recounted in present day has been translated into modern English.

It is a fine line the writer has to walk, for the sake of reading flow and comprehension, deciding which concepts should be taken for granted (a fixed collection of huts of 50 or so people certainly constitutes a village in a reader's mind) and which ones shouldn't (calling a collection of fleeing children a "troop" or "clan" puts an image in the reader's mind that this writer does not want).

That is not a flaw; that is a writing decision.

 

[fresh_42]

That is not a flaw; that is a writing decision.

You argue with the timetable when I say it is a clan, which, by the way, I actually did hear on documentaries about early humans, but you say such an argument cannot be applied when it comes to villages?

 

[jack action]

I think I found the perfect word: rout.

rout (countable and uncountable, plural routs)

1. (countable, obsolete) A group of people; a crowd, a throng, a troop; in particular (archaic), a group of people accompanying or travelling with someone. Synonyms: company, gathering
2. (countable, archaic) A group of animals, especially one which is lively or unruly, or made up of wild animals such as wolves; a flock, a herd, a pack.
3. (countable) A group of disorganized things.
4. (countable) A group of (often violent) criminals or gangsters; such people as a class; (more generally) a disorderly and tumultuous crowd, a mob; hence (archaic, preceded by the), the common people as a group, the rabble.

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English rout, route (“group of people associated with one another, company; entourage, retinue; army; group of soldiers; group of pirates; large number of people, crowd; throng; group of disreputable people, mob; riot; group of animals; group of objects; proper condition or manner”) [and other forms],[1] from Anglo-Norman route, rute, Middle French rote, route, Old French rote, route, rute (“group of people, company; group of armed people; group of criminals; group of cattle”) (modern French route (obsolete)), from Latin rupta (compare Late Latin ruta, rutta (“group of marauders; riot; unlawful assembly”)), the feminine of ruptus (“broken; burst, ruptured”), the perfect passive participle of rumpō (“to break, burst, rupture, tear; to force open; (figurative) to annul; to destroy; to interrupt”),[2] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to break; to tear (up)”). The English word is a doublet of route.

So it applies to wild animals (particularly, a rout of wolves) and to groups of people (particularly, lawless ones), fitting perfectly with a group living before the invention of civilisation.

 

[fresh_42]

I think I found the perfect word: rout.

We use this for a group of wild boars.

 

[pinball1970]

Faction and escapees. That pretty much exhausts my vocab on this unless I start dipping into collective nouns for other mammals.

 

[DaveC426913]

You argue with the timetable when I say it is a clan, which, by the way, I actually did hear on documentaries about early humans, but you say such an argument cannot be applied when it comes to villages?

A village is a broad term with no formal meaning. Any long-term, small gathering of people with domiciles can be called a village, no matter how many millennia ago it was. That applies all the way back into the murky pre-historic past until villages may or may not have existed.

A clan has a specific meaning, origin and geography. Clans formed less than 3000 years ago, during historical times, in specific, known circumtances.

And readers may bring their own preconceptions to the latter but not the former.


I could be proven wrong but this is your personal assertion:

You date your story back to 20,000 BC. However, the Neolithic Revolution that is necessary to attach a meaning to the word village, first took place around 9,000 BC.

Specifically that the term village cannot apply to a long-term gathering of people before the advent of agriculture and domestication. That is your conclusion (and, I'd argue, a hasty one), not a foregone conclusion.



And this isn't an argument. As the writer, village evokes what I want it to evoke, whereas clan does not.

 

[DaveC426913]

I think I found the perfect word: rout.



So it applies to wild animals (particularly, a rout of wolves) and to groups of people (particularly, lawless ones), fitting perfectly with a group living before the invention of civilisation.

The term's definition is a good description, but I'm not sure I can use the term. It is not self-explanatory.

"He picked as many herbs as he could carry and hurried to catch up with the rout."

 

[pinball1970]

The term's definition is a good description, but I'm not sure I can use the term. It is not self-explanatory.

Dave. You are one pedantic, particular and picky Canadian sir.