The 1841 British edition replaced the conjunction or with for, which was maintained in the LDS text until the 1920 edition. The or is the reading of the original manuscript, although one could imagine that Oliver Cowdery, the scribe of 𝓞, misheard an original for as or. In any event, the corrective or works perfectly well since Alma’s apparent intent here was to tell Helaman the actual word used by Lehi and Nephi in referring to the ball that led them in the wilderness and across the sea.
Summary: Maintain in Alma 37:38 the corrective or, which is the reading in all the earliest textual sources.