Friday, April 27, 2012

"My university failed me"



"And I've unwittingly put the proof right on my bumper."   That's what I think whenever I see proud displays of ignorance like the one above.  As anyone with a smattering of Latin is aware, alumni is the plural form of alumnus.   So, except for cases where the car is owned or occupied by multiple graduates of the same advertised institution of higher learning, the proper form of the noun to be used on the license frame is the singular, "Alumnus."  In my opinion, it would be better yet to have no license frame at all.

These elitist thoughts were prompted by something I just heard on the radio station of one of our more ancient and highly esteemed seats of learning.   Introducing a recording of "Regina Coeli," the student disc jockey  mispronounced coeli as "coe ee lie."  What are they learning in universities these days, if they can't even plausibly fake a familiarity with Latin?

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