Alma mater

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For other uses, see Alma mater (disambiguation).
Alma Mater statue at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Alma mater is a phrase originating from the mid-17th century, in the general sense ‘someone or something providing nourishment.[1] “almus”-giving nourishment and “alumni”-those who are nourished (or graduated)[2] UK pronunciation: /ˈælmə ˈmeɪtə/ or US pronunciation: /ˈɑːlmə ˈmɑːtər/; Latin: "nourishing mother", "kind mother" or "Bounteous Mother")[3] was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele,[4] and later in Christianity for the Virgin Mary. In the modern language in North America, it is often any school, college, or university at which one has studied, and usually, from which one has graduated.[5] The term may also refer to a song or hymn associated with a school.[6]

General term[edit]

The expression is almost always used in the singular form, but the Latin plural is almae matres.

The term alma mater in normal speech is rarely used outside the United States. In the UK, use of Latin in unabbreviated form is normally reserved for scholars, symbolic and decorative purpose or scientific species identification.

Alma Mater Studiorum ("Nourishing Mother of Studies") is the motto of the University of Bologna,[7] the oldest continually operating university in the world, and other European universities, such as the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig, Germany, or Alma Mater Jagiellonica, Poland, have also used the expression in their names.

Alma Mater Europaea is an international university founded by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2010. Its headquarters are in Salzburg, Austria, but most of its 800 students study at university's Slovenian campus called Alma Mater Europaea - Evropski center, Maribor.

At Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the main student government is known as the Alma Mater Society.

“a University [that] is, according to the usual designation, an Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one, not a foundry, or a mint, or a treadmill” (I.vi.8), and because of the educational programs to which, in greater or lesser measure, many alumni association now devote attention.[8]

Because the university is where, in Newman’s phrase, “a habit of mind is formed which last through life” (I.v.i), the university is Alma Mater for life, with whom her children have, in Newman’s language, perpetual residence, intellectually and spiritually if not always physically, even unto death.[9]

Monuments[edit]

The Ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant e.g. that at the Palatine in Rome. She was considered the central deity in the so-called Aventine Triad.

On the campus of Columbia University on the steps of Low Library there is a well known bronze statue of Alma Mater by Daniel Chester French. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also has an Alma Mater statue by Lorado Taft. A mural in Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library depicts the Alma Mater as a bearer of light and truth standing in the midst of the personified arts and sciences, painted in 1932 by Eugene Savage. Outside the United States there is another sculpture of Alma Mater on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. The statue was cast in 1919 by Mario Korbel, and installed in its current scenic location in 1927 above the direction of architect Raul Otero.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Oxford Reference-Alma Mater". The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 September 2013. 
  2. ^ Ayto, John. "Word Origins". Retrieved 24 September 2013. 
  3. ^ "Oxford Reference-Alma Mater". The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25 September 2013. 
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
  5. ^ Alma mater | Define Alma mater at Dictionary.com Dictionary.com. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  6. ^ Alma mater - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  7. ^ University of Bologna
  8. ^ Pelikan, Jaroslav (1992). The Idea of the University: A Reexamination. New Have and London: Yale University. pp. 180–189. ISBN 0-300-05725-3. 
  9. ^ Pelikan, Jaroslav (1992). The Idea of the University: A Reexamination. New Haven and London: Yale University. pp. 180–189. ISBN 0-300-05725-3. 

External links[edit]

Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary

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