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alma mater

  (ăl'mə mä'tər, äl'mə) pronunciation
or Al·ma Ma·ter n.
  1. The school, college, or university that one has attended.
  2. The anthem of an institution of higher learning.

[From Latin Alma Māter, nourishing mother (epithet of certain goddesses) : alma, feminine of almus, nourishing + māter, mother; see maternal.]


 
 
Idioms: alma mater

Also, Alma Mater. The school or college one attended and, usually, graduated from, as in During football season I always check to see how my alma mater is doing. This expression sometimes refers to the institution's official song, as in I never did learn the words to my college's alma mater. The term is Latin for "kind mother." [c. 1800]

 
Latin Phrase: Alma mater

Nourishing mother; one's old school, college, university

 
WordNet: alma mater
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: your alma mater is a school you graduated from

 
Wikipedia: alma mater

Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother". It was used in ancient Rome as a title for the mother goddess, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary.

This term is taken from the motto ("Alma Mater Studiorum") of the oldest European continually operating degree-granting university, the University of Bologna, in Italy, founded in A.D. 1088, and located in the city of Bologna.

In many modern languages it is usually and principally heard as a term of academia; thus, in the English language, it is often used in place of the name of the university or college a person has attended. In American English, it is also heard in reference to a high school or elementary school.

Alma mater is sometimes the incipit of a school's anthem or song, and may be taken as a title for the genre. The term is more familiar in the United States than in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term often refers to the entire school song as opposed to simply the opening.

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Latin Phrase. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alma mater".  Read more

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