Etymology and toponymy

The English word Alps comes from the Latin Alpes.

The Latin word Alpes could possibly come from the adjective albus[5] (“white”), which could possibly come from the Greek goddess Alphito, whose name is related to alphita, the “white flour”; alphos, a dull white leprosy; and finally the Proto-Indo-European word alphos. Similarly, the river god Alpheus also derives from the Greek alphos and means whitish.

In his commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil, the late fourth-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus says that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts.[6] The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp[citation needed].

This may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin (which is common for prominent mountains and mountain ranges in the Mediterranean region). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb “hill”; “Albania” is a related derivation. Albania, a name not native to the re

gion known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, “Albania” was a name for the eastern Caucasus, while in the English languages “Albania” (or “Albany”) was occasionally used as a name for Scotland,[7] although it is more likely derived from the Latin word albus,[5] the color white.