Sorbonne

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The renowned university in Paris, France, founded in the thirteenth century and long a centre of learning ; the historic building complex in the Latin Quarter that houses parts of that institution
2. A celebrated Parisian seat of higher education dating back to the medieval period ; the old campus and main edifice in the heart of the Latin Quarter
3. An influential French academic institution in Paris, originating in the Middle Ages ; the historic buildings in the Latin Quarter that give the university its name

Etymology: The Sorbonne takes its name from Robert de Sorbon, a chaplain to King Louis IX of France in the 13th century, who founded a college in Paris to house poor students of theology. The institution grew from that modest residential college into the University of Paris's most celebrated faculty, and the name stuck to the buildings and then to the university as a whole. The surname itself is tied to the village of Sorbon in the Ardennes, where the family came from. Over time the word moved from a single building to a whole institution and then to a symbol. Today "the Sorbonne" usually refers to the universities that succeeded the medieval faculty, but in English and French it still carries the sense of prestigious French scholarship, and the historic buildings in the Latin Quarter remain its most recognisable face.