tocsin

a totally foreign word to me

Definition of tocsin (tŏk'sĭn):
n. "An alarm sounded on a bell. A bell used to sound an alarm. A warning; an omen." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
10/16/07 – NY Times online article published October 14, 2007 titled "Nine Lives: What Cats Know About War" byJohn F. Burns.

“…That is when I heard it: the cry of an abandoned kitten, somewhere out in the darkness, calling for its mother somewhere inside the compound. By an animal lover’s anthropomorphic logic, those desperate calls, three nights running, had come to seem more than the appeal of a tiny creature doomed to a cold and lonely death. Deep in the winter night, they seemed like a dismal tocsin for all who suffer in a time of war...”

My two cents:
The Times bureau chief is a cat lover who writes about the burgeoning cat population in their compound in Baghdad and the ethics of feeding strays during war.