3 ms·

Your first sentence almost led you to a realization that you're wrong, but you just barely missed the boat judging from your last sentence.

• wenc 8y ago
  Not at all. You have misread me. That language evolves is a common used argument (and there is a place for it) but often used as a catch-all argument to justify errors.
  • SahAssar 8y ago
    But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. You yourself acknowledged that by starting your comment with "Unfortunately, common or not".
    • wenc 8y ago
      > But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. I dispute that. Googling doesn't turn up many examples of official usage of alumni in the singular. I also disagree with your second claim, which is a projection. When I said "common or not", I meant that frequency in itself does not automatically make something correct, and I gave reasons why in a follow-up comment. I didn't claim that usage was common. I'm not trying to be difficult, but alumni really is plural. Using alumni as singular is not correct.