Brewer's: Tramontane

(3 syl.). The north wind; so called by the Italians because to them it comes over the mountains. The Italians also apply the term to German, French, and other artists born north of the Alps. French lawyers, on the other hand, apply the word to Italian canonists, whom they consider too Romanistic. We in England generally call overstrained Roman Catholic notions “Ultramontane.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content