tocsin

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French toquesain (modern tocsin), from Old Occitan tocasenh, from tocar (“strike, touch”) + senh (“bell”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɒksɪn/
• Rhymes: -ɒksɪn
• Homophone: toxin

Noun

tocsin (plural tocsins)

1. An alarm or other signal sounded by a bell or bells, originally especially with reference to France.
   • 1804, The Times, 23 Aug 1804, p.3 col. C

     At half-past one, on the sounding of the tocsin (or bell of the public-house) about fifteen persons were collected, when the Rev. J. Bromley was called to the chair.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 131:

     The noise of drumming and trumpeting came from the Albany Street Barracks, and every church within earshot was hard at work killing sleep with a vehement disorderly tocsin.

   • 1970, JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition:

     As she entered the projection theatre the soundtrack reverberated across the sculpture garden, a melancholy tocsin modulated by Talbert’s less and less coherent commentary.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 281:

     I'll ring the tocsin, I'll have Saint-Antoine out. I can put twenty thousand armed men on the streets, just like that.

2. A bell used to sound an alarm.

Translations

an alarm or other signal sounded by a bell

• Finnish: kellonsoitto (fi)
• Italian: segnale d'allarme m

• Romanian: semnal de alarmă (ro) n
• Russian: наба́т (ru) m (nabát)
• Spanish: rebato (es) m
• Walloon: ban-cloke (wa) f

bell

• Finnish: hälytyskello (fi)
• Italian: campana d'allarme f

• Romanian: clopot de alarmă n
• Russian: наба́т (ru) m (nabát)
• Walloon: ban-cloke (wa) f

See also

• Tocsin in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Costin, sintoc, tonics

---

French

Etymology

From Old French toquesain, borrowed from Old Occitan tocasenh, from tocar (“strike, touch”) + senh (“bell”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔk.sɛ̃/

Noun

tocsin m (plural tocsins)

1. an alarm, a tocsin

Further reading

• “tocsin” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• citons, tonics

---

Romanian

Etymology

From French tocsin.

Noun

tocsin n (plural tocsine)

1. tocsin

Declension

Declension of tocsin

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) tocsin	tocsinul	(niște) tocsine	tocsinele
genitive/dative	(unui) tocsin	tocsinului	(unor) tocsine	tocsinelor
vocative	tocsinule		tocsinelor