CELTIC ETYMOLOGY.
(Vol. viii., pp. 229. 551.)
Your correspondent is a very Antæus. He has fallen again upon uim, and he rises up from it to defend the Heapian pronunciation with renewed vigour. But I cannot admit that he has proved the pedigree of humble from the Gaelic.
But, even if uim were the root of a Sanscrit word, and not itself a derivative, still the many stages through which the derivation undoubtedly passes, without any need of reference to the Gaelic, are quite enough to establish the existence and continuance of an aspirate, until we arrive at the French; and it has already been proved, that many words which lose the aspirate in French do not lose it in English. The progress from the Sanscrit is very clear:
Sanscrit. Kshama.
Pracrit. Khama.
Old Greek. Χάμα; whence χάμαι, χάμαζε, χθαμαλός.
Latin. Humus, humilis.
Italian. Umile; because there is in Italian no initial aspirate.
French. ’Humble; because in words of Latin origin the French almost always omit the aspirate.