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Justin
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 Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:05 pm Post subject: School's Alma Mater |
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If you remember your school's Alma Mater, if it had one, post it here. A post in the creative writing forum gave me this idea, and I wanna see all of the different types.
I forgot part of it, but that's most of it. When I remember the rest, I'll be sure to add it 
| Quote: | On a hill in Dickson County
Reared against the sky,
Proudly stands our Alma Mater
As the years go by
Forward ever be our watchward
Conquer and prevail,
Hail to thee our alma mater
Cougar pride all hail!
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IamTheKing9
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| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm... nice. 
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:58 am Post subject: |
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One point. The phrase "alma mater" refers to the school that you graduated from, itself; not the school song.
Those interested in the exact Latin translation can look it up for themselves, or simply await Eric's dogged scholarly footsteps.
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Aírmanareiks Şiudareiks
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:01 am Post subject: |
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| Actually, it can mean the anthem as well, so Justin's usage is not incorrect, just unorthodox. Alma in Latin refers to one who raises or nourishes you, and Mater means mother, obviously. I guess the person who first borrowed this phrase into English wished to compare schools and other academic institutions to a foster mother? After all, it is said, "The one who nourishes is greater than the one who bears"...and schools do just that...in a way... |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:41 am Post subject: |
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| Eiríkr Rauği wrote: | | Actually, it can mean the anthem as well, so Justin's usage is not incorrect, just unorthodox. |
Don't suppose you have an authority to quote on that, do you?
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Aírmanareiks Şiudareiks
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:50 am Post subject: |
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I checked wiktionary, and it doesn't even have an entry for it. But, surprisingly, Answers.com for the first time proved to me that it was a bit more than just a Wikimedia mirror. Okay, Google was the middleman, after all anyway.
| Quote: | al·ma ma·ter or Al·ma Ma·ter (ăl'mə mä'tər, äl'mə) pronunciation
n.
1. The school, college, or university that one has attended.
2. The anthem of an institution of higher learning. |
Source: Answers.com |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:56 am Post subject: |
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Ah. Question about the English language? Where better to go, than Texas?
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Aírmanareiks Şiudareiks
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:04 am Post subject: |
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If you're still not convinced, go to Google, type "define:Alma Mater" in the search bar, then click on search. The fourth definition cited says,
| Quote: | | Alma mater is a term of academia. "Alma mater" is the Latin term for "nourishing mother". It is used, less frequently than formerly, in the English language as a sobriquet for the university or college a person has attended. In American English, it is also 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. |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:20 am Post subject: |
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| Eiríkr Rauği wrote: | If you're still not convinced, go to Google, type "define:Alma Mater" in the search bar, then click on search. The fourth definition cited says,
| Quote: | | Alma mater is a term of academia. "Alma mater" is the Latin term for "nourishing mother". It is used, less frequently than formerly, in the English language as a sobriquet for the university or college a person has attended. In American English, it is also 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. |
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Perhaps you could tell me what in hell's blue blazes the word "incipit" could mean in this context?
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Aírmanareiks Şiudareiks
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| Incipit means 'beginning'. But gradually, alma mater has come to denote the whole of school anthems, due to semantic shifts and all. |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:32 am Post subject: |
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| Eiríkr Rauği wrote: | | Incipit means 'beginning'. But gradually, alma mater has come to denote the whole of school anthems, due to semantic shifts and all. |
Bah. The lot of it; an intermediate slide on the road to Ebonics.
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Aírmanareiks Şiudareiks
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:50 am Post subject: |
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| Well, morphosis in language is gradually observed in the mouths of speakers. A language is bound to undergo drastic changes in its structure over time. You say that it is comparable to Ebonics, but then, it should also be comparable to how Latin pretium, which meant the price of a commodity, gradually transformed into English praise. |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:03 am Post subject: |
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Of course, language evolves with use. It's just unfortunate that most modern 'evolution' takes place though haphazard misuse.
Language should change, and common usages be taken into account. But these changes should take place over decades, and centuries. Not common regional misusages that are the result of ignorance or laziness. Every time this happens, the usefulness of the language as a tool for clear communication is diminished.
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Justin
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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I knew Eric was going to say something to your post Mondine. It was that or I was going to do a whole lot of googling to come up with..exactly what he did.
Either way, 12(13) posts here and only one of them is an Alma Mater..I'm not here for the Latin lesson. |
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mondine
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Justin wrote: | | I'm not here for the Latin lesson. |
So, what? You're going to pout and blame because your thread went off topic? It's a chat forum.
What you are 'here for' isn't the Law of the Thread, chiseled in stone.
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