American Uni

[druiaghtagh]

 What is  the meaning of various names such as alma mater,suma *** laude (spelling ? ) thankyou

[Quizmonster]

'Alma mater' is Latin for 'benign mother'...ie the university is seen as a loving and nurturing parent, as it were. The Latin 'summa...laude' phrase means 'with greatest distinction' and refers to the quality of pass obtained in a given course/degree.

[jno]

summa *** laude (*** = with)

[LordyGeordie]

Alma Mater basically means your old university as quizmonster explains it mean benign mother. From the same word you get alumni which are old students from a university.

As for Summa *** Laude which for some reason seems to keep on bing edited, rather than be awarded 1st class, 2:1, 2:2, 3rd class etc degrees like we do in england the americans have magna *** laude, summa *** laude and another one which i can't remember off the top of my head. I can't remember which is the best on either, i think it's magna

[LordyGeordie]

Alma Mater basically means your old university as quizmonster explains it mean benign mother. From the same word you get alumni which are old students from a university. Alma Mater not uniquely american though it gets used in england

As for Summa *** Laude which for some reason seems to keep on bing edited, rather than be awarded 1st class, 2:1, 2:2, 3rd class etc degrees like we do in england the americans have magna *** laude, summa *** laude and another one which i can't remember off the top of my head. I can't remember which is the best on either, i think it's magna

[Quizmonster]

As I suggested in my earlier response, the 'summa' version means 'greatest', a superlative adjective-form. 'Magna' just means 'great', a basic adjective-form. Thus, the 'praise'...ie the 'laude' part...is higher in respect of 'summa' than it is re 'magna'.