Alma mater (Latin:almamater;pl.:almae matres) is anallegorical Latin phrase meaning 'nourishing mother'. It personifies aschool that a person has attended or graduated from.[1][2][3] The term is related toalumnus, literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a school graduate.[4]
Althoughalma (nourishing) was a common epithet forCeres,Cybele,Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction withmater in classical Latin.[6] In theOxford Latin Dictionary, the full phrase's origin is attributed toDe rerum natura, in which Lucretius uses the term as an epithet for an unnamed earth goddess:
Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit (2.991–993)[7]
We are all sprung from that celestial seed, all of us have same father, from whom earth, the nourishing mother, receives drops of liquid moisture
The earliest documented use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when theUniversity of Cambridge printer, John Legate, began using an emblem for theuniversity press.[8][9] The first-known appearance of the device is on the title-page of a book byWilliam Perkins,A Golden Chain, where the Latin phraseAlma Mater Cantabrigia ("nourishing mother Cambridge") is inscribed on a pedestal bearing a lactating woman wearing amural crown.[10][11]
In reference works of English etymology, often the first university-related usage is cited as 1710, when an academic mother figure is mentioned in a remembrance ofHenry More by Richard Ward.[12][13]
Many historic European universities have adoptedAlma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The Latin name of theUniversity of Bologna,Alma Mater Studiorum (nourishing mother of studies), refers to its status as theoldest continuously operating university in the world. At other European universities, such as theAlma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig, Germany, orAlma Mater Jagiellonica, Poland, the title emphasizes historic ties to a founding city or dynasty.
An altarpiece mural in Yale University'sSterling Memorial Library, painted in 1932 byEugene Savage, depicts theAlma Mater as a bearer of light and truth, standing in the midst of figures representing the arts and sciences.
_-_09.JPG)
.jpg)
