The word alarm contains a disguised definite article, as it is derived, via the French alarme, from the Italian all'arme! (to arms!). Interestingly, the word alkahest, mentioned in connection with alchemy on Monday, is cod Arabic, coined by Paracelsus. Incidentally, my surname, Tremberth, contains a vestigial INdefinite article, the Cornish an; in the development of the name tre an berth became trenberth, then was altered to tremberth through a change in spelling I noted in the 1881 UK census