[In pl. Alps, a. Fr. Alpes:—L. Alpēs name of a mountain system in Switzerland and adjacent countries; said by Servius to be of Celtic origin, and variously explained as meaning ‘high’ (cf. Gaelic alp a high mountain, Irish ailp) and ‘white’ (cf. L. albus).]
1. pl. Proper name of the mountain range which separates France and Italy, etc. sing. A single peak. (Applied in Switzerland to the green pastureland on the mountain side.)
1551. Turner, Herbal, II. (1568), 64. The alpes that depart Italy and Germany.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 3. 27. After a rough ascent over the Alp we came to the dead crag.
2. Any high, especially snow-capped, mountains.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 112. Certaine Alpes or mountaines directly Southward.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 62. O’re many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., IV. V. xx. § 3. A great Alp, with its purple rocks and eternal snows above.
3. fig.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1847, 182/1. This adamantine alp of wedlock.
1709. Pope, Crit., 232. Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.
1854. J. A. St. John, Nemesis of Power, 156. The loftiest minds, which tower like intellectual Alps above the common level of their species, seldom rise beyond that height which is visited by the clouds of prejudice.
4. Comb., as alp-horn.
1864. Engel, Mus. Anc. Nat., 10. Consisting of pieces of wood fixed tightly together, like the Swiss Alp-horn.
