a. (sb.) [ad. L. transalpīnus beyond or across the Alps, f. trans, TRANS- + alpīnus Alpine, f. Alpēs the Alps.]
1. That is situated beyond the Alps: a. Originally and usually as viewed from Rome or Italy, i.e., north of the Alps; also, dwelling in or belonging to a region beyond the Alps; also † transf. rude, uncultured (obs.). Cf. TRAMONTANE A. 1, 1 b.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), 16. Found in the mountaines of Transalpine France.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxiii. (1674), 23. Trans-Alpin writers, whose brains are thought to lie in their backs.
1659. Lovelace, Poems (1864), 225. Where then,… Lies our transalpine barbarous neglect?
1825. C. Butler, Bk. Rom. Cath. Ch., 120. There certainly are some Transalpine territories in which the Cisalpine opinions on papal power prevail.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), III. 246. The first transalpine garden of this kind arose at Leyden in 1577.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 36. The Po is the only Italian river which can be compared with those of transalpine Europe.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., VI. i. (1864), III. 373. Synods of Transalpine prelates, as at Rheims.
b. Beyond the Alps from England, or from Europe generally; Italian.
1624. [Scott], Votivæ Angliæ, Ded. 3. Those fiery Transalpine, and factious Transmarine English, who haue onely their bodies here, but their harts in Rome and Spaine.
1632. J. Howell, in Biondi’s Eromena, b iij. So have I seen Transalpin grafts to grow, And beare rare fruit, remov’d to Thames from Po.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Transalpine..., over or beyond the Alpes, forreign, Italian, on the further side of the mountaines.
1718. Rowe, Prol. to Non-Juror, 34. To your Transalpine master’s rule resort, And fill an empty abdicated court.
1765. Wilkes, Lett. fr. Naples, in Corr. & Mem. (1805), II. 200. This is my fourth letter to you since I have been transalpine.
c. Of or pertaining to the party in the Roman Church opposed to the Ultramontanes.
1794. in B. Ward, Dawn Cath. Revival (1909), II. 63. The doctrine of the Deposing and Dispensing power of the Pope,… doctrines which have for above a century been distinguished by the names of Ultramontane and Transalpine.
1826. [implied in TRANSALPINELY].
2. (Passing) across the Alps. rare.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 104. In his Trans-Alpine expedition.
1744. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 282. I hope the K. of Sarda will harrass the Fr. and Spds in their transalpine march.
B. sb. A native or inhabitant of a country beyond or across the Alps: cf. 1 a and b above. rare.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 47. Old Writers … write, that the Diuine Law came from Italy to the Transalpines.
1622. Burton, Descr. Leicester., 92. Though those Transalpines account vs Tramontani, rude and barbarous,… yet may compare either with their olde Dante, Petrarch, or Boccace.
1634. W. Tirwhyt, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. I.), 85. Those wise Transalpines themselves…, who thinke all such to be Scythians who are not Italians.
Hence Transalpinely adj. (cf. sense 1 c); † Transalpiner Obs. rare = TRANSALPINE B.
1826. G. S. Faber, Diffic. Romanism (1853), 195, note. I recollect the practical cisalpine argument of Almain, from the flat judicial contradictoriness of the two *transalpinely infallible Popes, Nicolas III. and John XXII.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 238. As touching butter and cheese, the Hollanders cry By your leaue wee must goe before you, and the *Transalpiners with their lordly Parmasin … shoulder in for the vpper hand as hotly.
1657. Earl Monm., trans. Paruta’s Pol. Disc., II. ix. 179. That all Transalpiners might be driven out of Italy, was a thing desired … by all Italians.
