Alumni, Alumnae, Alumnus

I was writing an email recently, thanking a former Western student who had come back to talk about what you do with an English major (ha, now I have an answer when people ask what I'm going to do with my degree!) and I had to write the word alumni. At which point I paused, wondering whether I was using the right form of that word (because between being an English major and having Google, they will know if I mess it up. And the guy had mentioned how important that follow-up email can be).

Luckily, I also have mastered the use of Google. A few clicks later and voila! I had my answer. And actually, it was rather cool. There are four different forms of the Latin word for a past student of a university or college. Here's a break down for you:

Alumna is the singular feminine version. If you are a woman and writing about being an alum of your alma mater, you would call yourself an alumna. Isn't that kind of pretty? It even looks rather feminine.

Alumnus is not a plural form of men or women alums. This is actually the singular masculine form. So men, use alumnus when talking about yourself. Otherwise, what you're saying is not what you mean. It'll come across okay, but someone like me will tease you mercilessly.

Alumnae is a plural. But it is the plural feminine form. If you have a group of women who all graduated from a university (or even a bunch of women who graduated from separate universities I supposed) this is the word you want.

Alumni, which is the word people most often use as a catch-all for alums, is actually the plural masculine version. However, as anyone who has taken a foreign language can attest, this form also includes mixed groups of men and women.

I just found all of this interesting. And now I can be more precise when I speak about alums (I personally like the shortened, kind of slang-y version "alum" because I don't have to wonder so much about the ending). But you know what's even cooler? What the word actually means in Latin.

The word alumnus/alumna as a noun means nursling, native daughter (or son. I'm assuming), ward, and even protégée. I now have this vision of alumni being delicate flowers, or small children just able to walk, still getting their feet under themselves. The school shelters us and then lets us go, tiny fragile birds barely able to fly. They're proud of us as we fly off on our own. It's kind of a cool picture. This has been your Latin lesson for the month.

And Badass Women will return on Monday with Juana de la Cruz. And I'm thinking about making Mondays Cool History Days. Things like Badass Women of America, ancient mysteries, etc. Thoughts?