piedmont

Etymology

It comes from the name of Piedmont, a region in north-west Italy,^[2][3][4][5] first applied in the form piemont directly from Italian Piemonte (“mountain foot”).^[2][6][7][8] The Shorter Oxford takes the common noun from the name of the region of the eastern United States, which was itself named after the Italian region.^[5] Etymonline derives the Italian name from Old Italian pie di monte (“foot of the mountains”),^[6] and the Shorter Oxford from piede (“foot”) and monte (“mountain”);^[5] the OED says the name comes ultimately from those Italian words, or from the corresponding words of another Romance language or of Latin, since its early history is unclear.^[2] Etymonline traces the parts to Latin pēs (“foot”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”), and to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to project”).^[6] The spelling with -d- is found by 1855.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fertile upland region of the eastern United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coastal plain: 1755, in Lewis Evans's Geographical Essays.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the American region the word was extended to similar country at the foot of other mountain ranges, from 1860,^[6][2] and became a term of geology.^[5] The adjective, of the American piedmont, is recorded from 1855,^[2][3] and the general sense "lying or formed at the foot of mountains", used of plains and glaciers, from 1890.^[2][3][7] In the Antarctic a piedmont was, from 1905, a shelf of ice at the foot of a mountain.^[2]

Timeline

• 1755 – piemont, the upland region of the eastern United States.^[2][6]
• 1855 – adjective, of the American piedmont; the spelling with -d-.^[2][6]
• 1860 – the area at the foot of a mountain or mountain range.^[2][6]
• 1890 – adjective, lying or formed at the foot of mountains.^[2][3]
• 1905 – an ice shelf at the foot of a mountain in the Antarctic.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (geology) An area of land at the foot of a mountain or mountain range, especially a gentle slope leading down to a plain.^[2][5][3]
2. An area of ice at the foot of a mountain in the Antarctic.^[2]

Adjective

1. Lying or formed at the foot of mountains: a piedmont glacier.^[3][7][2]

Related words

• foot
• pedestal
• mount
• mountain

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press