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Pedants' corner

Alumni

2 replies

JessieMcJessie · 05/09/2012 03:32

I've noticed recently that having alumni associations- for companies as well as educational establishments- is all the rage. Imagine they are very easy to set up and use for networking in the social media world.

However I am getting more and more cross with people who think that "alumni" is a singular noun i.e. " she is an alumni of Harvard". No she's not, she's an alumna and her male classmate is an alumnus. Together they are alumni. And if all her classmates were girls, they are alumnae.

I kid you not, I saw this uses incorrectly on the website of the Oxford and Cambridge Alumni association of the Asian country where I live. I also saw it in a legal newspaper. Seriously, if we can't trust Oxbridge and lawyers to get their Latin right, what hope is left?

Interestingly, I have noticed that Americans increasingly fudge the issue and say "alum"...

OP posts:
Yokel · 05/09/2012 03:34

Gah! Makes me grind my teeth too.

But not as much as 'a panini'. Panino, dammit!

[breathe]

Thumbwitch · 05/09/2012 04:20

I am with you entirely on that, Jessie. IMO people shouldn't really use words like that if they can't do it properly but that's probably very snobbish of me.

Yokel, now you've mentioned the panino, we'll get the espresso/expresso people in too Grin

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