[Fr., Pr. and Gallo-Romanic col:—L. collum neck, used of Parnassus by Statius, = jugum; so, obs. It. collo ‘altura, giogo’ (Della Crusca).
Cf. the corresp. north. Eng. HALSE, hause lit. ‘neck,’ and Ger. joch yoke, jugum. From an early date the local col has been rendered in med. Lat. charters, etc., by collis ‘hill,’ as well as by collum; and in the Italianizing of Piedmontese names, colle is now substituted, as in Colle di Tenda for the local Col de Tenda, Pr. lou côu de Tendo.]
A marked depression in the summit-line of a mountain chain, generally affording a pass from one slope to the other. A word belonging to the Romanic dialects of the Alps, which Alpine climbers and geologists have used of other regions.
1853. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., III. xxxii. 291, note. The Cols or passes indicate the minimum of the height to which the ridge of the mountains lowers in a particular country.
1855. J. D. Forbes, Tour Mt. Blanc, viii. 90. It is five hours walk to the col.
1873. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, xiii. 174. The denudation, or wearing away, of the col between two valleys.
Hence Col v. nonce-wd. (see quot.)
1884. Sat. Rev., 8 March, 311. Mountains … have been ‘colled’ (a term of art; the verb signifying to go up one side and down another).
1890. Daily News, 5 March, 5/2. ‘To do the Steinmannspitz, put a new face on, or at any rate col the dear old Darnennadel.’
Col, obs. f. COAL, COLE, COOL; also, an apothecary’s abbreviation for COLIANDER.
