tramontana

American  

[trah-muhn-tah-nuh, -tan-uh, trah-mawn-tah-nah] / ˌtrɑ mənˈtɑ nə, -ˈtæn ə, ˌtrɑ mɔnˈtɑ nɑ /

noun

tramontanas, plural tramontane plural

1. a cold wind from the north or northeast that blows in the western Mediterranean.

2. any north wind issuing from a mountainous region.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tramontanas
  plural
• tramontane
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tramontana

1605–15; < Italian, noun use of feminine of tramontano tramontane

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tramontana tramontane

The tramontana, that keen wind which blows from over the snow mountains, was sweeping down the narrow streets, searching out every nook and corner with its icy breath.

From Knights of Art; stories of the Italian painters by Steedman, Amy

A cloudless sky; broad sunshine, warm as in an English summer; but the roaring tramontana was disagreeably chill.

From By the Ionian Sea Notes of a Ramble in Southern Italy by Gissing, George

He will not so much need them out-of-doors in a Genoese January, unless a tramontana is blowing, and there was none on our half-day.

From Roman Holidays, and Others by Howells, William Dean

The glow of the west was on his pure young face, and the wind of the tramontana raised his waved hair and blew it lightly across his forehead.

From The Devourers by Chartres, Annie Vivanti

"What I cannot understand," said Astrardente, muffling his thin throat more closely against the keen bright tramontana wind, "is that such old fellows as Saracinesca should still want to play a part in the world."

From Saracinesca by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)

At the second night's concert, the tramontane brought an unseasonable downpour that soaked the motionless audience to the skin before the concert was called off.

From Time Magazine Archive

Perpignan's tramontane, a strong, cold wind that sweeps along the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, kept the orchestra grabbing for their music, finally made them clip the sheets to the racks with clothespins.

From Time Magazine Archive

Adj. distant; far off, far away; remote, telescopic, distal, wide of; stretching to &c. v.; yon, yonder; ulterior; transmarine†, transpontine†, transatlantic, transalpine; tramontane; ultramontane, ultramundane†; hyperborean, antipodean; inaccessible, out of the way; unapproached†, unapproachable; incontiguous†.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark

Now, half a degree the other way, in the tramontane region north of the Ridges, they found themselves in the presence of a vegetation that spoke of an advance, however minute, towards the pole.

From Toronto of Old by Scadding, Henry

It means what there is as yet no precise name for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane country whatever.

From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 4 by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley