I don’t like to dump on the paper for making typos, because everyone is guilty of that from time to time. But I think it should at least try to use real words. From today’s Editor’s Bulletin email from the Freep:
Alumnist in space
Students at John Taylor get a chance to talk to astronaut and alumnist Dr. Bob Thirsk today, who is on the International Space Station.
Alumnist? The word does show up 56,800 times in Google, but mostly on message boards and blog posts, and not in any dictionaries I could find. In contrast, the word “alumnus” — the correct term in this case — shows up 4.2 million times.
Even the Freep’s own search engine only spits back one instance of “alumnist” versus 293 of alumnus and 104 of alumna.
Filed under: winnipeg blog | Tagged: Winnipeg Free Press
I wonder which school that reporter (and his/her editor) was is an alumnist of.
What’s the problem? It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
Oh dear lord. It’s in there twice. That’s how you know it isn’t a typo. Someone help these people. I think, for all intensive purposes, they could use more experienced editors.
You know, an alumnist, or one dedicated to the study of alumni.
um, for all intensive purposes?