Nothing good has come of the scandal at my alma mater -- except perhaps a couple of items for this blog.
Item 1: I have discovered that, sadly, like other universities, Penn State failed to teach its graduates that each of them is an alumnus, not an alumni. Don't know how many times I've heard callers to radio stations say, "I'm an alumni of Penn State." Sad.
Item 2: A friend overheard a student talking about the situation and referring to the "alleged allegations" against Sandusky. Talk about redundant redundancies.
Proper Prepositions
The November War on Words in Out & About Magazine noted the misuse of prepositions in expressions like "I'm bored of this book." Heard a new one in the movie The Change-Up: "Are you embarrassed of me?" The proper preposition is "by." How do these things happen? I never heard such mistaken useage until a few years ago.
2 comments:
If one follows the Latin, an individual graduate might be an alumnus, if male. A woman would be an alumna. All women graduates are alumnae; however,the combined body of graduates are alumni. This loss of gender distinction not only appears in this Latin word but also in today's English. It seems more politically correct to say actor or host rather than actress or hostess. Why?????
I never encountered such mistaken usage of "useage" until I read your post. :-)
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