Alarm

It is in favour of the derivation *à l'arme* that the Italian is *allarme*; some dictionaries even have *dare all'arme*, with the apostrophe, for to give alarm. It is against it that the German word *Lärm* is used precisely as the English *alarm*. Your correspondent CH. thinks the French derivation suspiciously ingenious: here I must differ; I think it suspiciously obvious. I will give him a suggestion which I think really suspiciously ingenious: in fact, had not the opportunity occurred for illustrating ingenuity, I should not have ventured it. May it not be that *alarme* and *allarme* is for…