המר to bet, enter a wager. [Erroneously formed from הִמְרוּ (in the sentence מַעֲשֶׂה בִּשְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם שֶׁהִמְרוּ זֶה אֶת זֶה, ‘it happened that two men entered a wager with each other’), which is the Hiph. of מרה (= to rebel), and properly means ‘they argued, disputed, competed with each other’. Through back formation הִמְרוּ in the preceding quotation was identified with הִמְּרוּ, i.e. the הִ◌, the pref. of the Hiph. in הִמֽרוּ, was taken for the first radical of the verb, whence arose the stem המר, Pi. הִמֵּר (pl. הִמְּרוּ), with the meaning ‘he bet, entered a wager’. Today the verb הִמֵּר (whence the verbal n. הִמּוּר) is used even by celebrated Heb. writers. The general acceptance of a word whose existence is based on error is prob. due to the circumstance that there was a great need in NH for a word meaning ‘to bet’, and nothing else.] Derivative: מְהַמֵּר.