Mater as a word has been around longer than you think …

Okay, we can probably go out on a limb* and say that from 1575 to 2005, it’s usage was probably pretty much used as such …

Or attached to the back of “Alma” as in “Alma Mater.” (Maa-ter) … Google’s info DB only goes up to 2008 but looks like Mater, the word never attained the popularity of 1710. 🙂

* BTW, Out on a limb’s usage started around the 1840’s and now is as popular as ever! 🙂

So, if you ever wanted to know first and popular usage of words and phrases, check out Google’s Ngram feature.

Now you know … (older than you think – from 1705!)

BTW, you could Take Five starting in 1660 … back then, we only got distribution tacked onto fig trees … 🙂 … there was big plunge in readership during the 1670’s when the fig plague really cut into our distribution. And in the 1680’s we mistaken called ourselves Take Five Freemasons so we were quite unpopular or run out of town for several decades. We still get a little nervous like at SDCC when some you were carrying lit torches … 🙂