Talk:Alma mater

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Redirect

Current version of the article is little more than a dictionary definition. I have redirected to List of Latin phrases#A. If/when someone has enough more to say to turn this into a full stand-alone article, please revert this redirect to the prior version. Rossami 21:46, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Cleanup

Cleanup recommended. This article is all over the place. In definite need of disambiguation, reorganization. jareha 06:24, 5 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've disambiguated this article. Would like to know if there's a consensus that cleanup is complete. jareha 00:45, 9 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Removed cleanup tag. jareha 22:38, 5 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

latin usage

I was taught that latin often did not use capital letters- should we refer to it as 'alma mater', or am I missing something? :)

The 2 dictionaries I checked (the Oxford American Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary) both list both the capitalized and lowercase spellings as correct. According the normal rules for English spelling, it is not a proper noun nor perceived by a normal native speaker as being derived from one, so the preferred spelling would be lowercase.

The conventions of the Latin language are irrelevant. When a word is borrowed into another language, it adopts the conventions that the borrowing language assigns to it, which may be the same as or closer to either the original or the borrowing language. This often corresponds to, but is not necessarily a function of, the degree to which the borrowed word has been nativized. In English, this is usually rule governed, but can vary on a case-by-case basis.Bostoner (talk) 01:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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Matriculation, from the Latin ???

I am confused, this page says

 "The word matriculation is derived from the Latin root word mater."

But the "matricualtion" page says

 "Matriculation, ..., from the Latin matrix" meaning "list" or "register"

Are they both right? How?

BTW, one of the old meanings of "matrix" appears to be "womb"

From the "mater" page

 māter (genitive mātris); f, third declension

At any rate, I'm confused - clarification would be appreiciated :)

Q Science 18:47, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

British English

I have never once heard this phrase being used in the UK Cls14 23:44, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The OED has the following definition for Alma mater:

" A title given by the Romans to several goddesses, especially to Ceres and Cybele, and transferred in Eng. to Universities and schools regarded as ‘fostering mothers’ to their alumni."

(emphasis added). I would tend to trust the OED when it comes to British English. The term is commonly used in the second sense in all varieties of English. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 12:14, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alma mater is a common expression in British English, used to describe one's school, college, university, or similar place of education.--Oxonian2006 (talk) 22:49, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

two universities, one alma mater?

Assume someone went to college at C University and then professional school at P University, business/law/medical/etc. (and assume that both schools are in e.g. the USA). Is C the only "alma mater" because e.g. generally a person has only one mother? (Of course we are merely speaking here of general usage, and any resulting general conclusion would always be subject to exceptions, e.g. where the person declared a greater affinity to P.) The article is basically silent on this question, and other reference sources i looked at left me with the question. Thanks. Bo99 (talk) 18:24, 19 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your alma mater is where you received your first undergradate degree. Graduate school/postgrad professional school doesn't count. - Maggie --74.14.110.185 (talk) 00:03, 29 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone find a reference to back up Maggie so we can put this important discriminant on the article page. After all, this designation is part of the biography template in common use; users should find this answer in the lead of the article (for efficiency sake).Rgdboer (talk) 00:12, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think Maggie is being rather silly. I don't know what she means by, 'Graduate school/postgrad professional school doesn't count.' I am happy to speak of my several almae matres.--Oxonian2006 (talk) 22:49, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think this issue is unclear.... maybe because there is no official opinion on it. What about one who attended a college/university, but earned no degrees? Additionally the University of Bologna is credited for he phrase "alma mater." However, the wikipedia article for the University of Bologna says the university did not adopt the phrase "Alma Mater Studiorum" until 2000. Obviously, this term has existed longer than 8 years. James (talk) 01:21, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sourcing lyrics

Is it permissible to use well-known lyrics websites as a reference for song lyrics? I am particularly thinking of the section in this article that mentions Chuck Berry's use of the phrase in his song "My Ding-a-Ling". He also uses it in his song "Oh Baby Doll", which was a minor hit in 1957. I'd like to add this information, but how can I source it? As most lyrics websites rely on user- or bot-generated content, how reliable are they? Estesark (talk) 09:58, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unless the phrase is particulary slurred the fact that it appears can be sourced using primary sources. Ie. use the song as the source. Take care with due weight and stuff like that though. Taemyr (talk) 11:23, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

removing 'In Popular Music' section

Let's be honest, the 'In Popular Music' of this article is trivia. It's not an exhaustive list of references, and it's not intended to be - it certainly is never destined to become one, and it's arguable whether that goal is even beneficial to this article (beyond a 'see also' link). My instinct is to just get rid of it - SOP suggests integrating relevant facts into the article itself. Are there any of the items in this section that are worth keeping? Some of them (I'm looking at 'Immortal Technique's' lyrics here in particular) are totally inane and inconsequential.

Anyone see anything worthwhile about this section? MattLohkamp 09:56, 9 January 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matt.lohkamp (talk • contribs)

Alright, I'll remove it, let's discuss if anyone objects. - matt lohkamp 02:58, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As a song?

I don't believe "alma mater" ever refers to a song. Not only is "solid evidence" lacking, even the webpage referred to doesn't mention "alma mater". I'm deleting the whole section. Unfree (talk) 01:14, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]