alumnus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin alumnus (“foster son; ward, protégé, pupil”),^[2][3][4] literally a nursling.^[5][6][7] The Latin noun is from alō (“to nourish”),^[2][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”).^[4][8] Barnhart and Etymonline call it a vestigial present passive participle of that verb,^[3][4] and Klein explains it as standing for *alo-menos.^[7] According to the OED, its ending is a zero-grade variant of the same Indo-European base as Ancient Greek -μενος (-menos), the ending of medio-passive participles.^[2] The same verb is the source of alma mater, alimony and alimentary,^[10] and of aliment.^[2][9] Klein and Dictionary.com also refer to old,^[7][11] and Dictionary.com to adult.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A male pupil of a particular school or university: 1602, in A. Copley's Another Letter to Dis-iesuited Kinseman.^[2] Barnhart has the word from 1645, in John Evelyn's Diary,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also from 1645,^[12] and Etymonline from the 1640s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word moved from "foster son" to figurative uses such as ward, protégé and pupil,^[2] and it was as "pupil" that English first took it; this use lasted until the mid-19th century.^[2][6] The sense "former pupil, graduate" began in the United States, where the OED first finds it in the Maryland Gazette of 1800,^[2] and Collins still labels the word chiefly American and Canadian.^[5] From 1914 it was also used colloquially of a former member of any group, such as a team or a band,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged extends it to a former employee, contributor to a magazine or inmate.^[12]

Timeline

• 1602 – a male pupil of a particular school or university (obsolete by 1853).^[2]
• 1800 – originally in American use, a former pupil or student; a graduate.^[2]
• 1914 – colloquially, a former member of any group.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly US and Canada) A person, traditionally a man, who has attended or graduated from a particular school, college or university: The new senator is an alumnus of the state college.^[5][12][2]
2. A former member of a group, such as a team, band or organization, or a former employee or contributor.^[2][12]
3. (obsolete, 1602–1853) A male pupil at a school or university.^[2][6]

Related words

• alma mater
• alimony
• alimentary
• alumna
• aliment

Usage notes

In Latin alumnus is masculine, with the plural alumni, and alumna is feminine, with the plural alumnae.^[13] The masculine plural has traditionally covered mixed groups and is still widely used so, though some writers name both forms or prefer graduates to avoid the question.^[13][12] The OED records alumna for a female pupil from 1621 and for a female former student from 1843,^[2] the year also given by Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[12] while Etymonline dates it 1860 in its own entry and 1882 under alumnus.^[4] Wiktionary lists alum, alumn and a singular alumni as forms for any gender, often proscribed.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House