همزpressing and squeezing. (root hmz)

Al-hamz (الهمز): pressing. You say: 'hamaztu ra'sahu' (همزت رأسه) — I pressed his head, and '[hamaztu] al-jawzata bi-kaffī' — I pressed the walnut with my palm. The hamza (الهمزة) among the letters is named thus only because it is pressed (tuhmaz), being forced and pressed out from its point of articulation. You say: 'yahuttu [fulānun] hattan' (يهت فلان هتا) when he speaks with hamz [forcefully]. Al-hammāz and al-humaza: one who slanders his brother behind his neck, from behind him, with a fault. Al-lumza (اللمزة): [slander delivered] to his face. He said (poetry): "And if you were absent, you were the backbiter, the slanderer."

Al-hamz (الهمز) is like al-ghamz (الغمز) and al-ḍaghṭ (الضغط) [pressing/squeezing]. You say: 'hamaztu al-shay' fī kaffī' — I pressed the thing in my palm. The rajaz-poet said: "And whoever we press [hamaznā], his head is crushed." From this comes al-hamz in speech, because it presses [the letter]. You say: 'hamaztu al-ḥarf fa-nhamaza' — I pressed the letter and it became pressed (glottalized). It was said to a Bedouin: 'Do you pronounce the hamza in al-fa'ra (the mouse)?' He said: 'The cat presses it (hamzes it)!' [wordplay on pressing/catching]. Al-hamz is like al-lamz (اللمز) [backbiting]. Al-hāmiz and al-hammāz: the slanderer. Al-humaza is likewise. One says 'rajulun humaza' (a slandering man) and 'imra'atun humaza' (a slandering woman) also. 'Hamazahu' (همزه): he pushed him and struck him. The rajaz-poet said: "And whoever we push down [hamaznā] his might, he tumbles on his backside, whirling and spinning." Hamazāt al-shayṭān (همزات الشيطان): the promptings that occur to a person's heart. 'Qaws hamzā' (قوس همزى), on the pattern fa'lā: strongly propelling the arrow. Al-mihmaz and al-mihmāz (المهمز والمهماز): an iron piece at the back of the horse-trainer's boot [a spur]. Al-Shammākh said: "He straightened the crooked lance-shaft, and the quarry's flight corrected it, just as the spurs (al-mahāmiz) corrected the stubbornness of the intractable [steed]."

The letters hā', mīm, and zā' form a word indicating pressing and squeezing. 'hamaztu al-shay' fī kaffī' (همزت الشيء في كفي) — I pressed the thing in my palm. From this comes al-hamz (الهمز) in speech, as if it presses the letter. They say: 'hamaza bihi al-arḍ' (همز به الأرض) — he threw/pressed him to the ground. 'Qaws hamzā' (قوس همزى): a bow that propels the arrow with great force. Al-hammāz (الهماز): the habitual slanderer, and likewise al-humaza (الهمزة). He said (poetry): "He let down his affection for me falsely when he met me, and if I am absent, you are the backbiter, the slanderer." And hamz al-shayṭān (همز الشيطان) is like a fainting fit that overcomes a person's heart and carries him off.

Al-hamz (الهمز) is like al-'aṣr (العصر) [pressing]. You say: 'hamaztu al-shay' fī kaffī' — I pressed the thing in my palm, and from this comes al-hamz applied to the letter, and 'hamz al-insān' (همز الإنسان): slandering a person. God Most High said: "hammāzin mashshā'in bi-namīm" (هماز مشاء بنميم) — "a slanderer, going about with calumny" (Qur'an 68:11). One says: 'rajulun hāmiz, hammāz, humaza' — a man [who is] a backbiter/slanderer. God Most High said: "waylun li-kulli humazatin lumaza" (ويل لكل همزة لمزة) — "Woe to every slanderer, backbiter" (Qur'an 104:1). And the poet said: [entry continues]

'Hamaza ra'sahu yahmizuhu hamzan' (همز رأسه يهمزه همزا): he pressed it (ghamazahu). 'And I pressed [hamaztu] the thing in my palm'; al-Ru'ba said: "And whoever we press, his head is shattered." 'And he pressed the walnut with his hand, yahmizuhā' — likewise. 'Hamaza al-dābbata yahmizuhā hamzan' (همز الدابة يهمزها همزا): he pressed/goaded the mount. 'Al-mihmāz' (المهماز): that with which one presses/goads [i.e. the spur/goad]; al-Shammākh said: "He straightened the crooked lance-shaft, and the quarry's flight corrected it, just as the spurs (al-mahāmiz) corrected the stubbornness of the intractable [steed]." He meant 'al-mahāmīz' but dropped the yā' out of poetic necessity. Ibn Sīda said: it may be the plural of 'mihmaz.' Al-Azharī said: 'hamz al-qanā' (همز القناة): pressing it with the mahāmiz when it is being straightened/trued. Shamir said: al-mahāmiz are sticks, singular 'mihmaza,' a stick with an iron point at its head with which the donkey is goaded; al-Akhṭal said: "The clan of Ibn Af'ala are abject in weighty affairs, their spear-shaft, though their garments are soiled, has not been roughened by pressing from prolonged straightening, while their neighbor renders redress in weighty affairs — the fierce ones." Abū al-Haytham: al-mahāmiz are the goads of camel-drivers with which they prod the mounts to make them hasten; singular 'mihmaza,' which is the goad (al-miqra'a). 'Al-mihmaz' and 'al-mihmāz': an iron piece at the back of the horse-trainer's boot [a spur]. Al-hamz is like al-ghamz and al-ḍaghṭ [pressing], and from it comes al-hamz in speech because it presses [the letter]. 'And I pressed the letter [hamaztu al-ḥarf] and it became pressed [fa-nhamaza]'; and it was said to a Bedouin: 'Do you pronounce the hamza of al-fa'r (the mouse)?' He said: 'The cat presses it!' Al-hamz is like al-lamz [backbiting]. 'Hamazahu' (همزه): he pushed him and struck him. 'Hamaztuhu wa-lamaztuhu wa-lahaztuhu wa-nahaztuhu' (همزته ولمزته ولهزته ونهزته) [all mean]: I pushed him; al-Ru'ba said: "And whoever we push down his might, he tumbles on his backside, whirling and spinning." 'Tabarka'a al-rajul' (تبركع الرجل): when a man is thrown down and falls upon his backside. 'Qaws hamūz wa-hamzā' (قوس هموز وهمزى), on the pattern fa'lā: strongly propelling and driving the arrow — from Abū Ḥanīfa, who cited [a verse] by Abū al-Najm describing a hunter: "He aimed leftward with a hamzā [bow], truly driving [the arrow], and a hatfā [bow], generous and far-casting." Ibn al-Anbārī: 'Qaws hamzā' presses strongly when the arrow is loosed from it. And 'qaws hatfā' whistles/sings with its bowstring. Al-hāmiz and al-hammāz: the slanderer. Al-humaza likewise; 'rajulun humaza' and 'imra'atun humaza' also. Al-hammāz and al-humaza: one who talks of people behind their backs and devours their flesh [i.e., backbites them], being like al-'ayyāba (the habitual slanderer); this occurs by means of the mouth, the eye, and the head [gestures]. Al-Layth: al-hammāz and al-humaza is one who slanders his brother behind his neck, from behind him, while al-lamz is [done] to his face. In the Noble Qur'an: "hammāzin mashshā'in bi-namīm" — "a slanderer, going about with calumny" (68:11); and also: "waylun li-kulli humazatin lumaza" — "Woe to every slanderer, backbiter" (104:1); and likewise a woman [described as] 'humaza lumaza' — the tā' marbūṭa was not appended to feminize the one described by what is within her, but rather to inform the hearer that this described one, in what characterizes her, has reached the utmost extreme, so that the feminine form of the description was made a mark of the intended extremity and intensification (mubālagha). Ibn al-A'rābī: al-hammāzūn are those who slander in [someone's] absence, and al-lammāzūn are those who backbite in [someone's] presence; from this [comes] ... [entry continues]