Is 'Graduated College' Wrong?

Because it’s graduation season, my social media feeds are filling up again with complaints about people who say things such as “We’re so proud of Jimmy; he graduated high school this year.” 

For example, Bill T. wrote,

“Do you graduate high school, or do you graduate FROM high school? I don't think one can actually graduate a high school. Some trick to do that! This has really bugged me—please advise.”

I covered the topic a few years ago, but I’ve had a bit of a change of heart since then.

If you want me to just tell you what to do to be safe, I still have to say to stick with "graduated from," but I don't feel strongly about it anymore, and it's an interesting topic to explore.

If you look back 80 years or so, you'll find that the verb “graduated” used to be used differently, and current trends tells us that now it's being used differently again. Language changes over time, and “graduated” seems to be a twitchy verb that’s always on the move.

The Old Way: 'Was Graduated From'

First, let’s travel back in time. In the late 1800s, conventional wisdom said that a school did the act of graduating students, so the proper way to use “graduated” was to say that Johnny was graduated from high school. That passive wording, “was graduated from,” was considered standard English. But even then, people were already saying simply "Johnny graduated from high school." (1) The usage guides admonished against it because people were doing it.

The current standard usage is to say someone graduated FROM high school.

By 1963, the fourth edition of H. L. Mencken's book "The American Language" said that the active form had triumphed over the passive form because of the American drive to simplify the language. (2) In other words, people insisted on dropping the word “was” from “was graduated from college.” If you search Google Books, you can see the steady decline over time in phrases such as “was graduated from” and “was graduated from college.” (Do your own search.)

The Current Way: 'Graduated From'

I’m willing to bet that to most of you today, “Johnny was graduated from high school” sounds odd and maybe even wrong. We say “Johnny graduated FROM high school.”

The Newer Way:...

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