ARLON

arlon, the chief town of the belgian province of luxemburg, situated on a hill about 1240 ft. above the sea. pop. (1904) 10,894. it is a very ancient town, and in the time of the romans was called orolaunum, being a station on the antoninian way connecting reims and treves. authorities dispute as to the origin of the name, some tracing it to _ara lunae_, a temple of diana having been erected here, while others more plausibly derive it from the celtic words _ar_ (mount) and _lun_ (wooded). nowadays the woods have disappeared, and arlon is chiefly notable for the extensive views obtainable from the church of st donat which crowns the peak. arlon is no longer fortified. when vauban by order of louis xiv. turned it into a fortress in 1671 great damage was done to the old roman wall, the foundations of which were practically intact. in the local museum are many roman antiquities collected on the spot, including several large sculptural stones similar to the celebrated monument at igel near treves. in the middle ages arlon was the seat of a powerful countship (later marquisate), held after 1235 by the dukes of luxemburg. as an important strategic position it was several times seized by the french, e.g. in 1647 and 1651. arm (a common teutonic word; the indo-european root is _ar_, to join or fit; cf. the lat. _armus_, shoulder, and the plural word _arma_, weapons, gr. [greek: armos], joint, and the reduplicated [greek: arariskein], to join), the human upper limb from the shoulder to the wrist, and the fore limb of an animal. (see anatomy: _superficial and artistic_, and skeleton: _appendicular._) the word is also used of any projecting limb, as of a crane, or balance, of a branch of a tree, and so, in a transferred sense, of the branch of a river or a nerve. through the fr. _armes_, from the lat. _arma_, and so in english usually in the plural "arms," comes the use of the word for weapons of offence and defence, and in many expressions such as "men-at-arms," "assault-at-arms," and the like, and for the various branches, artillery, cavalry, infantry, of which an army is composed, the "arms of the service." "arms" or "armorial bearings" are the heraldic devices displayed by knights in battle on the defensive armour or embroidered on the surcoat worn over the armour and hence called "coats of arms." these became hereditary and thus are borne by families, and similar insignia are used by nations, cities, episcopal sees and corporations generally. (see heraldry.)