By the 18th century, alarm became standard. Alarum survived mainly in archaising poetry or legal phrases (“alarum and excursion”), but faded from common use.
Alarum exemplifies how spelling variation in English was not mere error but carried functional and stylistic meaning. Its specialised dramatic use made it a unique stage direction, not just a synonym for alarm . alarum download
While alarm is common today, the form alarum persisted for centuries in specific registers—most notably stage directions in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (e.g., “Alarum within” in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ). By the 18th century, alarm became standard