t from what it does.

Another suggestion is, that the first syllable is the same as the
root of _cad-o_, to fall; _l_ and _d_, everybody knows, are
easily interchangeable: as Odysseus, Ulixes: [Greek: dakruon],
_lacrima_, _tear_, &c. &c. If so, _calamitas_ is a corrupted form
of _cadamitas_. Mar. Victorinus, _De Orthogr_. p. 2456., says:--

"Gueius Pompeius Magnus et scribebat et dicebat _Kadamitatem_
pro _Kalamitatem_."--(Quoted from Bothe's _Poetae_," _Scenici
Latinorum_, vol. v. p. 21.)

But how is the -_amitas_ to be explained? I may as well add,
that Doederlein, with his usual felicity, derives it from [Greek:
kolouo].

EDWARD S. JACKSON.

I beg to refer MR. F.S. MARTIN (No. 14. p. 215.), for the derivation
of "Calamity," to the _Etymologicon Linguae Latinae_ of Gerard Vossius,
or to the _Totius Latinitatis Lexicon_ of Facciolatus and Forcellinus.
He will there find that the word _calamitas_ was first used with
reference to the storms which destroyed the stalks (_calami_) of corn,
and afterwards came to signify metaphorically, any severe misfortune.
The terrific hail-storm of the summer of 1843, which destroyed the
crops of corn through several of the eastern and midland counties of
this kingdom, was a _calamity_ in the original sense of the word.

"W.P.P." has also kindly replied to this query by furnishing a part of
the Article on _Calamitas_ in Vossius; and "J.F.M." adds, _Calamitas_
means--

"The spindling of the corn, which with us is rare, but in
hotter countries common: insomuch as the word _calamitas_ was
first derived from _calamus_, when the corn could not get out
of the stalk."--Bacon, _Nat. Hist_. sect. 669.

_Derivation of "Zero"_ (No. 14. p. 215.).--_Zero_ Ital.; Fr. _un
chiffre_, _un rien_, a cipher in arithmetic, a nought; whence the
proverb _avere nel zero, mepriser souverainement_, to value at
nothing, to have a sovereign contempt for. I do not know what the
etymology of the word may be; but the application is obvious to that
point in the scale of the thermometer below the numbered degrees to
which, in ordinary temperatures, the mercury does not sink.

[Greek: Philologos]

Deanery of Gloucester, Feb. 7. 1850.

"_Zero_" (No. 14. p. 215.)--_Zero_, as is well known, is an Italian
word signifying the arithmetical figure of nought (0). It has been
conjectured that it is derived from the transposition from the Hebrew
word _ezor_, a girdle, the zero assumi