tramontane

[truh-mon-teyn, tram-uhn-teyn]

adjective

1. being or situated beyond the mountains.

2. beyond the Alps as viewed from Italy; transalpine.

3. of, relating to, or coming from the other side of the mountains.

4. foreign; barbarous.

noun

1. a person who lives beyond the mountains: formerly applied by the Italians to the peoples beyond the Alps, and by the latter to the Italians.

2. a foreigner; outlander; barbarian.

3. a violent, polar wind from the northwest that blows in southern France.

tramontane

/ trəˈmɒnteɪn /

adjective

1. being or coming from the far side of the mountains, esp from the other side of the Alps as seen from Italy

2. foreign or barbarous

3. (of a wind) blowing down from the mountains

noun

1. an inhabitant of a tramontane country

2. Also called: tramontana. a cold dry wind blowing south or southwest from the mountains in Italy and the W Mediterranean

3. rare,  a foreigner or barbarian

Word History and Origins

Origin of tramontane¹

1300–50 for an earlier sense; 1585–95 tramontane for def. 5; Middle English tramountayne pole star < Italian tramontano < Latin trānsmontānus beyond the mountains. See trans-, mount ², -an

Word History and Origins

Origin of tramontane¹

C16: from Italian tramontano , from Latin trānsmontānus , from _trans- + montānus , from mōns mountain

Example Sentences

The tramontane winds come down from the Appenines so sharply, that delicate constitutions, particularly those liable to pulmonary complaints, suffer invariably.

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Ah! for heaven's sake, my dear creature!" exclaimed my husband, "don't mention the tramontane.

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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.

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I have forgotten whether it was the mistral or the tramontane, and I do not think it matters.

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He cast not a glance at the pretty faces of the young Englishwomen, with whose blue veils the tramontane played.

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