What Does “A Sowse of Lions” Mean?
“Sowse” is another of the genuinely obscure entries in the lion collective-noun family, and like “sault,” a fully confirmed origin isn’t something we can stand behind with confidence. One reasonable, if speculative, connection is to “souse,” an old English word meaning to plunge or swoop down suddenly, a term also used historically in falconry to describe a hawk’s swift diving strike on prey.
If that link holds, “sowse” may describe a lion’s sudden, decisive strike in much the same spirit as “sault,” language borrowed from the hunting and falconry vocabulary that shaped so many of English’s older animal collective nouns. We’re presenting this as a plausible thread rather than a confirmed fact, since the historical record on this specific word is thin. What’s certain is that lions do rely on sudden, committed strikes rather than prolonged chases, a real behavioral pattern this word may well be describing, even if we can’t fully verify the linguistic path that got it there.
Example: “The old text mentioned a sowse of lions descending on the herd before the grazers had any warning.”
Related: Collective Nouns for Mammals · What Is a Group of Lions Called?