Another one bites the dust?

Beverly Flanigan flanigan at OHIO.EDU
Thu Sep 6 17:12:26 UTC 2007


The growing favorite seems to be "alum," with the plural "alums."  This
avoids the masc./fem./plural issue, though probably not consciously.

At 01:02 PM 9/6/2007, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Another one bites the dust?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I agree. The examples are best taken from conversation without being
>elicited.  Btw, I'm pretty sure I've also heard "an alumni."
>
>Gerald Cohen
>
> > ----------
> > From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold M. Zwicky
>         <snip>
>
> > a nice topic for further study, but i have to warn you that just asking
> people what form they use in particular contexts is probably not the way to go.
> >
> > arnold
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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