alert

Meanings

Adjective

• Attentive; awake; on guard.
• brisk; nimble; moving with celerity.

Noun

• An alarm.
• A notification of higher importance than an advisory.
• A state of readiness for potential combat.

Verb

• To give warning to.

Origin

• From French alerte ("alert"), from the phrase à l'erte, from Italian all'erta ("to the height"), from erta.
• Formed within English by conversion, from . Compare French alerter.