Alma mater

Alma mater (Latin: alma "nourishing/kind", mater "mother"; pl. [rarely used] almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. It is used to refer to a school which an individual has attended. In English, the phrase is variously translated as "nourishing mother", "nursing mother", or "fostering mother", suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students.

Before its modern usage, Alma mater was an honorific title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and later in Catholicism for the Virgin Mary. The source of its current use is the motto Alma Mater Studiorum ("nurturing mother of studies") of the oldest university in the Western world in continuous operation: the University of Bologna, founded in 1088. It is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, and literally meaning a "nursling" or "one who is nourished".

The term may also refer to a song or hymn associated with a school.

Etymology

Alma

Alma may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

People

Places

Australia

Canada