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 Etymology 

The etymology section was completely wrong. The Hebrew consonant ""Tsade"" results from the merging of (at least) two proto-Semitic consonants. They are still distinct in Classical Arabic, as ""Ṣad"" and ""Ḍad"". It is easy to see that ""chamets"" corresponds to the Arabic root ḥ-m-ḍ, because the Aramaic version (which appears in the Aramaic parts of the Hagada) is ḥamiʕa (with `Ayin), and almost all Arabic ""Ḍads"" map to `Ayin in Aramaic. In Hebrew, the root means both ""sour"" and ""leavened"" (cf. ""chamuts"" =sour; ""chomets"" =vinegar; ""chumtza"" =acid). In Arabic it is used mostly to denote ""sour"" or ""acidic"". In any event, ""chamets"" is not related to ""hummus"" or ""Homs"". ""Hummus"" is ""chimtza"" in Modern Hebrew, and in one case, ""chometz"" in the Bible might be ""hummus"" rather than vinegar, but the root is historically different, and only accidentally did they assume the same phonetic shape. 79.177.167.209  "