# an alumni



## piotr1980

Hello,

On some websites I saw a word ''ALUMNI''. I just cheched it out in the dictionary and found out that it's *''a former student''*.

- So, If i graduadted from univeristy X.* Is it correct to say ''I am an alumni of Univeristy X''*

*Does this word have also different meaning?*
*Many thanks*
*Piotr*


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## dn88

Hi Piotr,

"alumni" is plural
"alumnus" is singular

Cheers


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## Suehil

If you are male, you are an 'alumnus', if female an 'alumna' - 'alumni' is plural.  As far as I know, that is the only meaning.


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## JamesM

I believe "alumnus" is the male singular, and "alumna" is the female singular, but to tell you the truth, everyone I know uses "alumni", despite the fact that it's technically plural.


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## cuchuflete

JamesM said:


> I believe "alumnus" is the male singular, and "alumna" is the female singular, but to tell you the truth, everyone I know uses "alumni", despite the fact that it's technically plural.


 This must be a regional difference.  Here alumni is used and understood as the plural form only. Informally, a person, male or female, may say, "I'm an _alum_ of Thwackdoodle U."


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## panjandrum

This is not a term used a great deal here.  The begging letters from the University refer to us as Graduates.  I see the dictionary knows of alumnus (plural alumni) and alumna (plural alumnae) - and alum, a non-gender-specific US colloquial alternative to alumnus/alumna.


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## JamesM

cuchuflete said:


> This must be a regional difference. Here alumni is used and understood as the plural form only. Informally, a person, male or female, may say, "I'm an _alum_ of Thwackdoodle U."


 
I would certainly use "alumnus" in any printed copy when referring to myself, but "alumni" is very common in speech. "an alumnus of" gets 539,000 hits and "an alumni of" gets only 142,000 hits on Google. Still, I'd say 142,000 places it in the "commonly used" category.

Just as a note, there are several references to "an alumni of" that come from Maine, so I don't think it's a regional variation. I think it's casually used in many settings and has come to be accepted, even though inaccurate.

("alum" is so much better. It avoids the "nus/na" ending problem.  )


http://www.umfk.maine.edu/valleyvision/release/default.cfm?recordID=04184
_Fort Kent - The University of Maine at Fort Kent paid tribute to five *...* Myrtle Hoyt, *an alumni of* the class of 1921, was honored with the Gold Cane Award_ 

http://www.apor1.org/pages/ext_WhosWho
_Their sponsor is Becca Maynard who is *an alumni of* the Phi Epsilon Chapter at the Maine Maritime Academy._

http://khs.msad71.net/guidance/2007scholarshipbook.pdf
Scholarships will be awarded to graduates enrolling in a 2 or 4-year college, vocational school or other institutions of higher learning during the following upcoming academic year. Criteria: 1) Son/daughter of *an alumni of* Kennebunk or Kennebunkport High School, 2) Financial Need.​


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## cuchuflete

The UMFK link will take you to more than one grammar error.  We have those in the northeastern US, so California cannot claim sole credit.     It also has a correct use:


> Myrtle Hoyt, a graduate of the Madawaska Training School class of 1921, who recently turned 100 years old, was honored with the Gold Cane Award which is presented to UMFK's oldest alumni. Hoyt holds the title as does Irene Pinette Daigle, class of 1922.


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## JamesM

The title of the article is:

*UMFK honors four alumni and a future outstanding alumni at Come to Campus banquet* 

"and *a* future outstanding alumni" ??

I know that it's incorrect, cuchu, but I'd say it is becoming as common as "data is" rather than "data are". I'm just trying to make the point that it is commonly seen. It is not a rare occurrence to see "alumni" as a singular, despite the fact that it's a plural noun.

Let me give a few more examples:

http://newhaven.craigslist.org/grp/303698476.html
If you are an alumni of Yale University, you can join this organization and start networking. (from an ad for the Yale Alumni Group)

http://www.hbshealthconference.org/speakers.htm
Khorakiwala has a Masters degree in pharmaceutical science from Purdue University and is an alumni of Harvard Business School.

http://www.salamworldwide.com/royals8th.html
The 37 year old Mr. Pahlavi is an alumni of Princeton University, where he studied physics, as well as Colombia University, New York, where he graduated in 1992 in contemporary history.

http://www.rollins.edu/entrepreneurship/mac_bio.shtmlMr. Cipollaro is an alumni of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and received his BS from Georgetown University and his MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has also studied at the Universities of Vienna, Bologna, and Geneva.


It is fairly widespread and appears in many different settings. That doesn't make it right,  but it does mean that it is used in that way.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

It should also be noted that this is a Latin, and not an English word. It therefore follows Latin rules, and not the politically-correct rules for modern English. As a result, "alumni" refers to all the graduates of a school, both male and female, and not merely the male graduates. The word "alumnae" refers to the members of one sex only, but the word "alumni" does not, and is inclusive of both sexes. If one wishes to refer to all of the graduates of a school, one merely need say "alumni"; "alumni/ae" is redundant.


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## lsp

I don't think _alumni_ is used for the singular by enough people to call it acceptable. It still falls neatly into the "error category" in my neck of the woods. It has a long way to go before I'd liken it to _data_ (which is already listed as both singular and plural in my online dictionary).


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## cuchuflete

It hurts, but I have to agree with you, James.  I had thought of blaming it on Canadian English, given Fort Kent's location, or wondering aloud if the writer might be from Orange County, but the facts are against me. Would it help to mention that 62% of Fort Kent's population are habitual French speakers?

No, I didn't think so.


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## JamesM

lsp said:


> I don't think _alumni_ is used for the singular by enough people to call it acceptable. It still falls neatly into the "error category" in my neck of the woods. It has a long way to go before I'd liken it to _data_ (which is already listed as both singular and plural in my online dictionary).


 
That's a good point. I can't find a dictionary that defines "alumni" as singular, but the "error" is widespread. Here's yet another example from across the pond:

http://www.rcmusic.ca/ContentPage.aspx?name=Alumni_definition

*Definition of an Alumni *(title of page)

If you are a graduate of The Royal Conservatory of Music through RCM Examinations (ARCT Diplomas), The Glenn Gould School (PDP, ADP diplomas) or The RCM Community School (ECME Certificates), then you are considered an official alumni of The Royal Conservatory of Music.

[edit] Oops... originally thought this was from England, but it's from Canada.


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## cuchuflete

Can we agree to call it a widespread error, such as pronouncing nuclear as nuke-yuh-ler, or does it deserve some
euphemistic classification?


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## JamesM

I think it's beyond "error." It is now often used to mean a single person in many settings. When did "data is" go from "widespread error" to "alternate definition"? Is there a word for that transition period? I think this word's usage is transforming. That's just an opinion.

If I were to say in conversation, "I am an alumnus of XXX University", I would think I would either be considered slightly snobbish in many settings or be corrected with "Do you mean alumni?" I would expect anyone with a college or post-graduate degree to have no problem understanding "alumnus/alumna", but I wouldn't expect them to use it in any but the most formal settings.

California tends to be more casual than the East Coast, in general, so in that way it may be a regional thing, but there is enough evidence on the web to indicate that people use it across the country to mean an individual. 

I suppose I would say to an ESL student, "use alumnus if you are male, or alumna if you are female, but don't be surprised if you receive blank stares or corrections for using them in many settings."  The fact that multiple colleges use it in their own web-based publications makes me think it's beyond "widespread error."  If anyone should be attempting to conserve the meaning of the word, it would be a college or university.


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## Dimcl

cuchuflete said:


> It hurts, but I have to agree with you, James. I had thought of blaming it on Canadian English, given Fort Kent's location, or wondering aloud if the writer might be from Orange County, but the facts are against me. Would it help to mention that 62% of Fort Kent's population are habitual French speakers?
> 
> No, I didn't think so.


 
Ah, the influence of those darned Canadians!  No matter where I've lived in Canada, it's always been "alumnus" (singular) and "alumni" (plural).  And this thread is the first time I've ever heard the word "alum".


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## Blumengarten

JamesM said:


> I believe "alumnus" is the male singular, and "alumna" is the female singular, but to tell you the truth, everyone I know uses "alumni", despite the fact that it's technically plural.



I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "alumni" meaning singular. Usually they use "alum" as a generic male-female singular graduate.  I think that most people who are alums (alternate plural) of a college or university know the difference.  At least I remember fellow students talking about this as our graduation approached.


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## panjandrum

GreenWhiteBlue said:


> [...] "alumni" refers to all the graduates of a school, both male and female, and not merely the male graduates. The word "alumnae" refers to the members of one sex only, but the word "alumni" does not, and is inclusive of both sexes. [...]


That's what it says in the OED too.  I suspect many have mistakenly assumed (as I did) that alumnus was specifically male (and hence also alumni).  
The original Latin alumnus = nursling or foster-child.


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## panjandrum

As a matter of curiousity, do you have to graduate from the school in order to be an alumnus, one of the alumni, an alum, or whatever?  Or would you still have that title if you had attended for two months then been thrown out?


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## Dimcl

panjandrum said:


> As a matter of curiousity, do you have to graduate from the school in order to be an alumnus, one of the alumni, an alum, or whatever? Or would you still have that title if you had attended for two months then been thrown out?


 
I believe that you have to have graduated.  If you were turfed and were still considered an alumnus, your name would be on those "begging letters lists" and it would be unlikely that you'd be amenable to receiving the letters.  Things might get testy...


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## JamesM

It depends on the school, as far as I know, Panj.  The most common meaning is "graduate", though, at least in my experience.


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## Blumengarten

panjandrum said:


> As a matter of curiousity, do you have to graduate from the school in order to be an alumnus, one of the alumni, an alum, or whatever?  Or would you still have that title if you had attended for two months then been thrown out?



In my mind, all the various forms of _alum_ mean you've actually graduated -- or to be precise, I should say, "been graduated."


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## cuchuflete

Some colleges and universities are more anxious to keep people 'in the family'.



> ARTICLE II
> MEMBERSHIP  1. Every person who has ever  matriculated as a full-time student in pursuit of a  xxxxxxxxxx  degree at the undergraduate College or at the Medical School, the xxxxxxxxxx School of Engineering or the xxxxxxx School of Business Administration shall become a member for life on the normal Commencement date for his or her class.
> 2. Every other person who has  enrolled as a xxxxxxx student in pursuit of a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Doctorate degree shall become a voting member of the Association for life on the date such degree is received.
> 3. Any other person shall be  an honorary member of the Association if he or she has received an honorary  degree from  xxxxxxx  College, been officially adopted by a xxxxxxx class, or been voted honorary membership at an annual meeting of the Association. Such an honorary member shall be a non-voting member of the Association and shall not be eligible to serve as an alumni trustee.


Association of Alumni Constitution of XXXXXXXXX


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## anothersmith

In spoken English, I've almost always heard people say "I'm an alum" rather than "I'm an alumnus/alumna/alumni."

Out here, however, it is very common to license plate frames on cars that bear the name of a university followed by "alumni."  I've never seen one with the singular form of the word.

I hate it, but I have to conclude that "alumni" is gradually starting to be treated as the singular form, much like "data."


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## panjandrum

Blumengarten said:


> In my mind, all the various forms of _alum_ mean you've actually graduated -- or to be precise, I should say, "been graduated."


I forgot about that distinction - see:
*'was graduated from' or 'graduated from' ?*


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## anothersmith

Blumengarten said:


> In my mind, all the various forms of _alum_ mean you've actually graduated -- or to be precise, I should say, "been graduated."



I agree.  I started my studies at one university and transferred to another.   I don't consider myself an alumna of the first.   (They consider me an alumna, but only because they want me to send them money!)


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## savannah

cuchuflete said:


> Some colleges and universities are more anxious to keep people 'in the family'.


 
Indeed, my undergraduate institution numbers you among the alumni as long as you matriculated and attended for any length of time.  It's one of the older universities in the US, so maybe that's an older custom?  In fact, the university alumni magazine even publishes memorials/obituaries for alums who did not graduate.

And to weigh in on the debate at hand: In my opinion, "alum" is gaining in popularity, for both formal and informal situations, precisely because it bypasses the us/a/i/ae problem.  I, for one, prefer it.  As both a feminist and a lover of language (Latin included), I don't much like being lumped in with the masculine variant and told not to make a fuss, since everyone knows we women are included.  But then, I'm a bit feisty when it comes to these sorts of things!


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## Thomas1

Is an alumnus/alumna someone who graduated from a university or it can by any kind of school?
 
 
Tom


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## cuchuflete

I suppose it could be any kind of school, but actual AE usage of the terms is mostly for universities/colleges.
My high school refers to its collective membership as 'the class of 19XX".


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## anothersmith

I went away to a boarding school for high school, and they refer to their graduates as alumni.


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## liliput

> I think it's beyond "error." It is now often used to mean a single person in many settings. When did "data is" go from "widespread error" to "alternate definition"? Is there a word for that transition period? I think this word's usage is transforming. That's just an opinion.
> 
> If I were to say in conversation, "I am an alumnus of XXX University", I would think I would either be considered slightly snobbish in many settings or be corrected with "Do you mean alumni?" I would expect anyone with a college or post-graduate degree to have no problem understanding "alumnus/alumna", but I wouldn't expect them to use it in any but the most formal settings.
> 
> California tends to be more casual than the East Coast, in general, so in that way it may be a regional thing, but there is enough evidence on the web to indicate that people use it across the country to mean an individual.
> 
> I suppose I would say to an ESL student, "use alumnus if you are male, or alumna if you are female, but don't be surprised if you receive blank stares or corrections for using them in many settings." The fact that multiple colleges use it in their own web-based publications makes me think it's beyond "widespread error." If anyone should be attempting to conserve the meaning of the word, it would be a college or university.


I hate to be a pedant (or maybe not) but for me, a mistake is a mistake, even if it's widespread, and we should avoid perpetuating the error. Personally, I probably would have made the mistake of referring to a female student as an alumnus rather than an alumna, maybe this results from the fact that the teaching of Latin is no longer common.


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## JamesM

liliput said:


> I hate to be a pedant (or maybe not) but for me, a mistake is a mistake, even if it's widespread, and we should avoid perpetuating the error.


 
Well, since it's also a latin-based word, how do you feel about 'data _is_', then?  

To me, this falls into the same category, only this one is not quite as far along the migration path from "error" to "alternate definition".


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## AWordLover

Hi All,

I think this mistake is very widespread (in AE), I would guess that about half of my college graduate friends have referred to themselves as an alumni of X.

Check out the usage note on errata to (in my opinion) more clearly see the future.

errata. Dictionary.com. _Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)_. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/errata (accessed: April 30, 2007).


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## liliput

> Well, since it's also a latin-based word, how do you feel about 'data _is_', then?


It's interesting, I've always thought of data as a collective noun rather than a plural and have never said "data are". If this is a mistake then I suppose it's another result of my lack of latin education. I blame people the people who new it was wrong and didn't correct me.


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## panjandrum

<<Moderator note:
This thread is about alumni.
There is plenty of scope to discuss data, singular or plural, on:
*Collective nouns - data - is/are?
Please continue there if you wish.
panj>>
*


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## panjandrum

savannah said:


> [...]  As both a feminist and a lover of language (Latin included), I don't much like being lumped in with the masculine variant and told not to make a fuss, since everyone knows we women are included.  But then, I'm a bit feisty when it comes to these sorts of things!


You are falling into the same trap that I tried to explain before.  The word alumnus is NOT specifically masculine - it very specifically includes all children.

Unfortunately, there is now a tendency to assume that any apparently-Latin word ending in -us is inherently masculine.  One day soon there will be a campaign to re-name the bus, on grounds that it is for all men, not for all people.


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## JamesM

panjandrum said:


> <<Moderator note:
> This thread is about alumni.
> There is plenty of scope to discuss data, singular or plural, on:
> *Collective nouns - data - is/are?*
> *Please continue there if you wish.*
> *panj>>*


 
I apologize if I was leading the thread off-topic.  My point was the parallel (datum/data and alumnus/alumni).   People can call "data is" incorrect in much the same way people call "an alumni is" incorrect, but usage is beginning to shift  "alumni" to an acceptable singular use.  I don't think it's there yet, but it's on its way, as far as I can tell.


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## Thomas Tompion

In BE academic circles people often say an _alumnus_ to mean a _graduate_.  I wouldn't expect the word to raise an eyebrow at a high table, but I'd always prefer to say a graduate, as the Latin word sounds pretentious to many people, and outside academic circles might well just not be understood.  I was astonished to hear that _alumni_ is a common singular form in AE.


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## JamesM

Thomas Tompion said:


> In BE academic circles people often say an _alumnus_ to mean a _graduate_. I wouldn't expect the word to raise an eyebrow at a high table, but I'd always prefer to say a graduate, as the Latin word sounds pretentious to many people, and outside academic circles might well just not be understood. I was astonished to hear that _alumni_ is a common singular form in AE.


 
It's in that awkward middle phase, Thomas. We had a discussion in another thread about "forte" (pronounced "fort" or "for-tay" by various people for various reasons.) "Alumnus" and "alumni" are in that odd position where you might be looked down upon as ignorant by some people for saying "I'm an alumni" and you might be considered a snob or a pedant by others for saying, "I'm an alumnus". 

In order not to be misleading, I'd like to point out again that "an alumnus of" is still much more common than "an alumni of" in print.

"Graduate" is probably a much better word to use; I may start a campaign in the U.S. to drop alumnus/alumni in favor of the straightforward "graduate."


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## Packard

Suehil said:


> If you are male, you are an 'alumnus', if female an 'alumna' - 'alumni' is plural. As far as I know, that is the only meaning.


 

If you attended an all girls school, the plural would be "alumnae".

Which begs a question:  Several formerly all girls schools have dropped the "all girls" mandate and now accept male students.  So the current class (boys and girls) are "alumni".  The classes from the 1960's were "alumnae".  So would you change the older classmates plural to "alumni" if you were writing today?

Note:  Goucher College (Maryland) , and Vassar College (Poughkeepsie) are two highly regarded schools that have made this change; this is not a strictly rhetorical question.


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## Packard

Blumengarten said:


> In my mind, all the various forms of _alum_ mean you've actually graduated -- or to be precise, I should say, "been graduated."


 
To me "alum" is a powder that if taken orally will make your face pucker:

*alum*
_a double sulphate of aluminum and potassium that is used as an astringent (among other things) _


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## JamesM

Packard said:


> To me "alum" is a powder that if taken orally will make your face pucker:
> 
> *alum*
> _a double sulphate of aluminum and potassium that is used as an astringent (among other things) _


 


I know what you mean.  I wonder how many people have had the experience of putting alum in their mouth.  Wow!

One is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, though, and the other with the accent on the second syllable, at least as I've heard it.


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## Judica

cuchuflete said:


> Can we agree to call it a widespread error, such as pronouncing nuclear as nuke-yuh-ler, or does it deserve some
> euphemistic classification?


That was not right LOL!!! 

For the original poster, yes it does mean that you are part of a graduating class of the school / university.  Yes, you are an alumnus in a group of alumni.


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## river

Another example:

"To be considered an alumnus or alumna of Tulane University (New Orleans) a person must have completed 12 hours of coursework. “Alumnus” is not the same as “graduate” – a graduate must have earned a degree from Tulane."


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## liliput

> It's in that awkward middle phase, Thomas. We had a discussion in another thread about "forte" (pronounced "fort" or "for-tay" by various people for various reasons.) "Alumnus" and "alumni" are in that odd position where you might be looked down upon as ignorant by some people for saying "I'm an alumni" and you might be considered a snob or a pedant by others for saying, "I'm an alumnus".
> 
> In order not to be misleading, I'd like to point out again that "an alumnus of" is still much more common than "an alumni of" in print.
> 
> "Graduate" is probably a much better word to use; I may start a campaign in the U.S. to drop alumnus/alumni in favor of the straightforward "graduate."


I think the term "graduate" is more often used to refer to someone who has recently graduated and also relates more to the fact that you gained a qualification than that you were once part of the student body (which I admit is splitting hairs a little).
In addition, I'm not in favour of abolishing perfectly good words in favour of more simple ones - isn't that what they were trying to do in George Orwell's "1984", with the intention of preventing people from thinking too much?
Finally, (sorry to go off topic a little) but are there really people who pronounce "forte" "fort"? Please can you post a link to that thread for me?

*Etymology of the word "forte"*


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