Jun 22, 2013
I despise cis-anything as a description. Why? Because it’s entirely a created word. Plus, it doesn’t even answer the question—it doesn’t mean “the alps”, it doesn’t mean “on top of the Alps”, it most especially doesn’t mean non-transalpine; it just means “on this side of”. If anything, it implies—in the usage to actual people—that “cisalpine” individuals are the ones on the same side of the Alps as the speaker. Which I suppose is okay for full meaning if the person speaking is in Cisapline Gaul but what if the speaker is in Transalpine Gaul, or not in Gaul at all? Then they’re describing someone on the same side of the Alps as them, which is not how most people use the term.