alumnus

Forms

alumnus (feminine alumna, neuter alumnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Pacuvius has the old genitive plural alumnum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *alomnos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-o-mh₁no- (“being fed”), the middle present participle of Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to nourish, grow”), the root of alō (“to nourish”).^[4][1] Its ending is the participial suffix seen in Greek -μενος (-menos).^[2][5] De Vaan gives as cognates of the root Old Irish alid (“feeds”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽 (alan, “to grow up”) and Ancient Greek ἄναλτος (ánaltos, “insatiable”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Mercator has “I am your master and your foster-son”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it is a nursling or foster-child, in contrast with a natural son, and in the poets a young animal or plant.^[2][3] It also means a person considered as the product of a country or place, as in Cicero's Italy seeing her own son crucified; a ward or protégé (Curtius); and the pupil or follower of a philosopher, as Aristotle and the others are Plato's.^[2] As an adjective it means “reared, fostered”, and in Statius “native”.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “pupil, student, one brought up”.^[6] In medieval sources it can mean a client kept in a lord's household, and also a teacher.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a foster-son.^[2][4][8]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius has the genitive plural alumnum.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a son of Italy and of Plato's pupils.^[2][8]
• 1640s – Borrowed into English as alumnus, “pupil or graduate of a school”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nursling, foster-son; a young animal or plant.^[2][3][1]
2. A son of a country or place, a native.^[2]
3. A ward, protégé.^[2]
4. A pupil or follower; a student.^[2][1][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A client kept in a lord's household; a teacher.^[7]

Adjective

1. Reared, fostered; native.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• alumnor
• alumnulus
• alumna

Related words

• alō
• English alumnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de