different between tocsin vs toxin

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): /?t?ks?n/
• Rhymes: -?ks?n
• 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.

   • 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

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): /t?k.s??/

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

English

Etymology

From Latin toxicum, equivalent to toxi- +? -in.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?ks?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t?ks?n/
• Homophone: tocsin
• Rhymes: -?ks?n

Noun

toxin (plural toxins)

1. A toxic or poisonous substance produced by the biological processes of biological organisms.

   Antonym: antitoxin

2. (proscribed) A toxicant; a toxic substance in a body that needs to be removed.

Derived terms

• toxinic

Related terms

• toxic

Translations

Further reading

• toxin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia