OMGWTFBBQ

I know this is a piddly little thing, and I know I'm kind of an English teacher schoolmarm jerk, but it drives me absolutely CRAZY when people say "alums".

WOMEN.  When it is a woman who has attended an institution, she is an ALUMNA.  When you are talking about people in your sorority, they are ALUMNAE.  They are NOT "alums".

I don't hear this quite as often from total school populations, but it still happens frequently enough that I'm calling out guys too.  The graduates of your school are ALUMNI if there was even one dude in the crowd.  ALUMNI.

But it especially drives me crazy that women do it.  C'mon, ladies, I know you are brilliant, intelligent, super-duper, amazing, fantastic people.  Can we please use the right word to describe our sisters?




(Although it occurs to me as I write this that using the "word" alums is a way to make the Latin gender-neutral.  In which case, carry on, and I'm a jerk.  If it's used as a shortcut, I guess I kind of understand that too.  But it seriously drives me crazy.)

/end rant