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The meaning of the word ’alpine’ | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 1 of 9 22 October 2010 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
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Today I came across a bottle of "Alpine Spring Water" from a source in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Does 'Alpine' not refer exclusively to the Alps anymore or is the company full of dung?
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| cmj Octoglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5339 days ago 58 posts - 191 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Arabic (classical), Latin, Italian | Message 2 of 9 22 October 2010 at 11:44am | IP Logged |
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In English, "alpine" has taken on the role of a general adjective for "mountain". Hence alpine sports, alpine spring water, etc...
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 9 22 October 2010 at 12:31pm | IP Logged |
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Huh, funny enough, now that you mention it, I do know and use the expression 'alpine sports', but for some reason 'alpine spring water' sounded odd to me. Possibly because I'm more used to the expression 'mountain spring' than 'alpine spring'.
Anyway, thanks for the clarification. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 9 22 October 2010 at 2:33pm | IP Logged |
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Alpine also has a particular meaning when discussing mountain climates. It's more or less everything between the natural treeline and the permanent snowline in temperate climates. Characterised by thick scrubby grass, goats, relatively large burrowing creatures like mountain hares or marmottes and spectacular large birds of prey.
Whether this is what "Alpine spring water" refers to, I don't know, but it's certainly relatively easy terrain for finding springs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sik0fewl Newbie Canada Joined 5495 days ago 31 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 9 26 October 2010 at 4:53am | IP Logged |
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"Alpine" is an adjective usually meaning "of or relating to mountains". However, "Alpine" (always with initial capital letter) can also mean "of or relating to the Alps".
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 6 of 9 26 October 2010 at 4:41pm | IP Logged |
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This bottle had it written in all caps. Does that count?
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| sik0fewl Newbie Canada Joined 5495 days ago 31 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 9 02 November 2010 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
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Haha, not really. Personally, if I heard or read "Alpine"/"alpine" I would assume it to mean "alpine" unless the context suggested otherwise.
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| aspirelan Newbie Russian Federation Joined 5125 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 9 14 November 2010 at 7:44pm | IP Logged |
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Looks like Alps-Alpine gained double nomination. This could be - a) mountain, but for example in Russian the other nomination for Alpine is used in a phrase 'Alpine meadows' - green and full of grass vales. Edited by aspirelan on 14 November 2010 at 7:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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