the.com/alma mater
the school you'll criticize forever but defend if anyone else does.
means the university or college you graduated from, remembered as an institution that shaped you, warts and all.
from latin for nourishing mother, an epithet Romans gave to goddesses like Ceres who fed and sustained; universities borrowed it to cast themselves as intellectual wet nurses.
literal translationnourishing mother, not just school
also meansa school's official anthem or hymn
bologna universityclaims oldest continuously operating alma mater, 1088