by the
insertion of a vowel before the final _m_. The Irish, in particular,
adopt this mode of pronouncing; even in public speaking they say
_callum_, _firrum_, _farrum_, for _calm_, _firm_, _farm_. The old word
_chrisom_ for _chrism_, is an analogous change: the Italians have in
like manner lengthened _chrisma_ into _cresima_; the French have
softened it into _chreme_.

L.

_Alarm._--It is in favour of the derivation _a 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
_Laerm_ 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 formed in the obvious way, as
_to arms_; while _alarum_ and _Laerm_ wholly unconnected with them? May
it not sometimes happen that, by coincidence, the same sounds and
meanings go together in different languages without community of origin?
Is it not possible that _larum_ and _Laerm_ are imitations of the stroke
and subsequent resonance of a large bell? Denoting the continued sound
of _m_ by _m-m-m_, I think that _lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m_ &c., is as
good an imitation of a large bell at some distance as letters can make.
And in the old English use of the word, the alarum refers more often to
a bell than to any thing else.

The introduction of the military word into English can be traced, as to
time, with a certain probability. In 1579, Thomas Digges published his
_Arithmeticall Militare Treatise named Stratioticos_, which he informs
us is mainly the writing of his father, Leonard Digges. At page 170. the
father seems to finish with "and so I mean to finishe this treatise:"
while the son, as we must suppose, adds p. 171. and what follows. In the
father's part the word _alarm_ is not mentioned, that I can find. If it
occurred anywhere, it would be in describing the duties of the
_scout-master_; but here we have nothing but _warning_ and _surprise_,
never _alarm_. But in the son's appendix, the word _alarme_ does occur
twice in one page (173.). It also occurs in the body of the _second_
edition of the book, when of course it is the son who inserts it.