Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An alarm sounded on a bell.
- n. A bell used to sound an alarm.
- n. A warning; an omen.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A signal given by means of a bell or bells; especially, a signal of alarm or of need; hence, any warning note or signal.
- n. A bell used to sound an alarm; an alarm-bell.
- n. Milit., an alarm-drum formerly used as a signal for charging.
Wiktionary
- n. An alarm or other signal sounded by a bell or bells, especially with reference to France.
- n. A bell used to sound an alarm.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the sound of an alarm (usually a bell)
- n. a bell used to sound an alarm
Etymologies
- From Old French toquesain (modern tocsin), from Provençal tocasenh, from tocar ‘strike, touch’ + senh ‘bell’. (Wiktionary)
- French, alteration of toquassen, from Old French touque-sain, from Old Provençal tocasenh : tocar, to strike (from Vulgar Latin *toccāre) + senh, bell (from Late Latin signum, from Latin, signal; see sign). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“That night the sound of the tocsin was again heard, mingling with the booming of cannon.”
“His purpose was seen by us at once, and seen with fresh alarm; for, if he had been able to reach the great bell, the terrible 'tocsin' would have aroused the country for ten leagues round, and have poured a hundred thousand armed peasantry into Paris.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843
“The tocsin is the signal for our people in the salient. ”
“At a meeting this week organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, as part of its Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative, five leaders of the Christian churches in Sudan, on a tocsin tour of the United States, reflected on where things have come as a result.”
“But that's what Pelosi did, directing her righteous tocsin to the Norman Rockwell-like gatherings of Americans who opposed her expansion of government this past summer.”
“The US for its part needs those precious liquid fuels too, and China's torquing of global climate rings the dread tocsin in the American bell tower.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Vlahos: America and China: Partners or Rivals?
“On the circular base of his apparatus he installed glass jars, in each of which a leech was imprisoned and attached to a fine chain that led up to a miniature belfry -- from whence the tinkling tocsin would be sounded on the approach of a tempest.”
“The tocsin bell hanging from its collar was fulfilling its mission.”
“And his case is even more of a tocsin because it doesn't seem that he suffered any serious concussions.”
“Emergency men identify a calamity—whether in Georgia, Iran, Venezuela—then sound the tocsin, offer quick verdicts, and jump forth with action-oriented remedies.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tocsin’.
-
important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
-
phrontistery-t
from phrontistery.info
tabacosis, tabanid, tabaret, tabati?re, tabby, tabefaction, tabellary, tabellion, tabernacle, tabernacular, tabescent, tabific and 930 more...
-
250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
-
Bells and Whistles
Liberty Bell, Belle and Sebastian, Whistler's Mother, whistle stop, pennywhistle, whistle pig, wolf whistle, wet your whistle, barbell, bell jar, Bell's palsy, bell pepper and 138 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
-
nachchba's Words
stentorian, blasé, ennui, concinnity, melee, photokeratitis, skiffle, refulgence, mongrel, fakir, caid, eudaimonia and 215 more...
-
Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
-
kad's Words
caliph, sylvain, slither, rebbe, sverdrup, vapid, onus, atavistic, cathexis, acathexis, kludge, lithe and 97 more...
-
Allographic Homophones
Words that can be pronounced identically but are spelled differently. I've started with unusual or extensive sets. In some of these sets, no one speaker would pronounce them all the same. I've trie...
air, are, ayr, ayre, e'er, ere, err, eyre, heir, apatite, appetite, picnic and 226 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
-
Madame Bovary
Some good words (chiefly French of origin, and often to do with the medical profession) encountered reading the Aveling translation -- mostly new to me, but a few words that are just worthy of bein...
tulle, argand, friable, corolla, lives of stir, difficile, rime, inveigh, feuilleton, peristyle, refulgence, wainscoting and 98 more...
-
Not Quite As Awful As They Sound
masticate, absquatulate, adumbrate, afflatus, fetial, anile, bilabial, cineaste, smew, copse, piebald, testudinate and 156 more...
-
A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tocsin.
stackpool Okay, so I just had to go find the etymology:
French, alteration of toquassen, from Old French touque-sain, from Old Provençal tocasenh : tocar, to strike (from Vulgar Latin *toccre) + senh, bell (from Late Latin signum, from Latin, signal; see sign). Aug 26, 2009
stackpool Okay, so I just had to go find the etymology:
French, alteration of toquassen, from Old French touque-sain, from Old Provençal tocasenh : tocar, to strike (from Vulgar Latin *toccre) + senh, bell (from Late Latin signum, from Latin, signal; see sign). Aug 26, 2009
stackpool It's a homophone of "toxin" ... maybe why people don't use that word so much any more... Aug 26, 2009
whichbe Alarm bell. May 16, 2008