alp
noun/ælp/
Etymology Late Middle English, back-formation from alps pl, via French from Latin Alpes (“high mountains, especially those of Switzerland”). Compare Old Saxon elbon (“Alps”), Old High German Alpūn (“Alps”); Old High German alba (“alp, mountain”)).
1
A very high mountain. Specifically, one of the Alps, the highest chain of mountains in Europe.
- Nor breath of Vernal Air from ſnowy Alp.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 42, line 529:
- Hills peep o'er Hills, and Alps on Alps ariſe!1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC, page 15:
1 more example
- There is a great alp of sand, one hundred metres high, between the pines and the ocean, […]1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
2
An alpine meadow.
- At the alp of Khyarkuti, a wide flat at the junction of several glens[…]1942, Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, page 54: