“Alumni - What does it mean?”
Alumni associations are common in vintage schools or
colleges.
I belong to ‘St Joseph’s College and School Alumni Association’
as well as ‘CMC Alumni Association’. The former is a boys’ school where as the
latter is a co education college.
Little did I realize when I searched for the origin of
the word that 'alumni' was one of the misused words.
Male Sex
The singular ‘alumnus’ refers
to one male graduate.
‘Alumni’
is the pleural noun which refers to a group
of male graduates.
Female Sex
‘Alumna’ refers
to one female graduate.
‘Alumnae’ refers
to a group of female graduates.
So what do you call a group of old graduates consisting of men and women?
If you want to avoid
confusion ‘Alum, alums’ would be the easier modern version to refer to a
mixed group of males and female graduates. ‘Alumni’
is also used to refer to a group of mixed sexes (though it is also used for a group of
males).
What is erroneous to utter?
NEVER ever say, “I am an alumni of ….….” That
ain’t good English!
You hear this often enough!
Origin
