The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is the oldest operating university in the world. Founded in AD 1088, it has naturally contributed a few words to common usage.
The first is university. It referred to a body of scholars, monks, or experts, and came from universus, Latin for whole or entire. The earliest universities were bodies of Catholic monks, but Bologna was the first to use the word in its name, award degrees (both secular and non-secular ones). Impressive that it continues to operate!
The second is alma mater. Latin for “nourishing mother”, it is part of the motto of the institute at Bologna - ‘Alma Mater Studiorum’, or nourishing mother of studies. Accordingly, alumnus comes from the Latin for foster child or nourished one. The feminine form is alumna. Other words from the same root include alimony and alimentary.
College (as well as colleague) comes from a similar sense - from the Latin collegium meaning ‘community, society or guild’.
Interestingly, UNIBO also saw the first woman to earn a university degree and teach at a university, Bettisia Gozzadini, and the first woman to earn both a doctorate in science and a salaried position as a university professor, Laura Bassi.
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