chirm

English

Alternative forms

• churm
• churme (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English chirmen (“to chirp, twitter”), from Old English ċirman (“to make a noise, cry out, shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *karmijan (“to make a sound”).

The noun is from Middle English chirm (“the call of various birds; chirping”), from Old English ċirm, ċyrm, ċierm (“noise, cry, alarm”), from Proto-West Germanic *karmi, *karm, from Proto-Germanic *karmaz, *karmiz. Doublet of charm (“sound, voices; group, flock”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɜː(ɹ)m/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m

Noun

chirm (plural chirms)

1. (obsolete) A din or confused noise, as of many voices, birdsong, etc.

Verb

chirm (third-person singular simple present chirms, present participle chirming, simple past and past participle chirmed)

1. (obsolete) To chirp or to make a mournful cry, as a bird does.
   • 1552, Richard Huloet, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Chyrme or chur, as byrdes do.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “chirm”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• charme, cherme, chirme (Late Middle English)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English ċierm f, from Proto-West Germanic *karmi, from Proto-Germanic *karmiz.

The variant charme can either originate from the Old English variant ċearm m (from Proto-West Germanic *karm) or *ċerm, the unattested Mercian cognate of West Saxon ċierm with late Middle English lowering of /ɛr/ to /ar/ (thus reflecting an alternative dialectal development of *karmi).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃirm/, /t͡ʃɛrm/, /t͡ʃarm/ (directly attested)
• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃurm/ (possibly)

Noun

chirm

1. (rare) A chirp or tweet; an avian vocalisation.

Related terms

• chirmen

Descendants

• English: chirm, churm; charm, jarm
• Scots: chirm, churme

References

• “chirm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.