Alarum
Origin
From Middle English alarom, from Italian all'arme ("to arms, to the weapons"), from arma, armorum ("weapons")
Full definition of alarum
Noun
alarum
(plural alarums)- A danger signal or warning.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 20, The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen....The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.
- A call to arms.
- c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, scene II(stage direction) A camp near Forres. Alarum within.
- 1969, Michael Arlen, Living Room WarIt seems to me that by the same process they are also made less "real" - distinguished, in part, by the physical size of the television screen, which, for all the industry's advances, still shows one a picture of men three inches tall shooting at other men three inches tall, and trivialized, or at least tamed, by the enveloping cozy alarums of the household.
Derived terms
Verb
- (archaic) To sound alarums, to sound an alarm.
- c. 1605 Shakespeare, Macbeth Act II, Scene I"Now o'er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd Murther, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost."
Usage notes
Alarum is an old spelling of alarm (as a noun or a verb), which has stayed around as a deliberate archaism. Possibly it is retained because of its use in Shakespeare's plays.