ḫamāṣu
1 Lexical
Commentaries
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) (comm.) DD-stem (Doubled stem/Intensive) īnīšu ú-am-ma-aṣ : [...] ḪUM : amāšu : ḪUM : ḫamāšu CunMon. 49/2, 171: 29f. “he takes his eyes off(?) (means) [...] ḪUM (means) to contort(?), ḪUM (means also) to snapp off”. Commentary Sakikkû V 107′. new
11. GG-stem (Grundstamm/Basic stem)
OB-LitOB-Lit: Old Babylonian literary texts GG-stem (Grundstamm/Basic stem) iḫ-mu-uṣ₄ lubša RA 101, 66: 73 (Gilg.) eBL “she tore of (her) garment”.
12. DD-stem (Doubled stem/Intensive)
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) DD-stem (Doubled stem/Intensive) šumma īnīšu ú-am-ma-aṣ Sakikkû V 117′ “if he takes his eyes off(?)”. Reading according to the new excerpt of this entry in Schmidtchen 2025, 198 r 3. See also Sakikkû XXIII 32′ (of eyes) and partly restored Sakikkû VI 89′ (85′ in BAM 13) (šaptīšu ana šapl[ānū? ú-am?-ma]-aṣ : uḫanna[ṣ], of lips), Sakikkû XI 36 ([ú-a]m-ma-aṣ, of hands).
Discussion
The references concerning the eyes (D and G stative ref. to naplussu “his way of looking” in Köcher et al. 1958, 65: 20) might be understood in a transf. sense “(to be/make the gaze/eyes) vacant, absent” (already suggested in AHw 315 ḫamāṣu G 3).
Note, however, that the discrepancy in the Aram. etym. seem to mirror the allocation of ḫamāṣu and the uncertain var. amāṣu: cf. thus ḥmṣ “to steal; be put to shame” and ʿmṣ “to close (the eyes or other senses)”, see Sokoloff 2009, 1112; Sokoloff 2002, 140, perhaps connected with Hebr. and Arab. ʿmṣ and ḥms “to be(come) strong, heavy (etc.)”; note also and ʿms “to press together”, see Sokoloff 2009, 1112; Jastrow 1090, as well as Arab. ʿumāṣ “eye discharge, rheum” (note also ʾaʿmaš “teary-eyed, with watery eyes”), see Wehr 880. Accordingly, amāṣu may represent a separate verb with an appr. meaning “to be(come) closed; (fig.) vacant, absent, secretive”. Vars. of amāṣu (concerning the eyes) with ḫ seem to come mainly from OB sources in which ʾ and ḫ are not differentiated graphically (note that OB Lu B iv 49 seems to refer nevertheless to ḫamāṣu (D) due to the following equation with nasḫā). We may consider also a connection with emēṣu II “to hunger”, cf. the note in Kogan 2015, 288f.