Alpine Race
Preserved but no longer current.
This is another name for the large Celtic Race and is applied to the thick- set men, with broad faces, hazel eyes, and light chestnut hair who inhabited the north- west extremity of France, Savoy, Switzerland, the Ardennes, Vosges, and the Biscayan coasts. They were a midway race between the Scan- dinavian Nordics and the dark Mediter- ranean folk; the zenith of their culture was the so-called La Tene period (500 B.C. to A.D. 1).
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Alpine Race” mean?
This is another name for the large Celtic Race and is applied to the thick- set men, with broad faces, hazel eyes, and light chestnut hair who inhabited the north- west extremity of France, Savoy, Switzerland, the Ardennes, Vosges, and the Biscayan coasts. They were a midway race between the Scan- dinavian Nordics and the dark Mediter- ranean folk; the zenith of their culture was the so-called La Tene period (500 B.C. to A.D. 1).
Is “Alpine Race” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.