heart
UK /hɑːʔ/ · US /hɑɹt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms hearts hearting hearted hart hearte
- noun (anatomy) A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
- noun (uncountable) One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character. “She has a cold heart.”
- noun The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, etc.; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; usually in a good sense; personality. “a good, tender, loving, bad, hard, or selfish heart”
- noun Compassion. “If she had any heart she'd forgive me.”
- noun Affection “The chorus's singing won the hearts of the audience.”
- noun Disposition “They didn't take the remarks in good heart.”
- noun Emotional strength that allows one to continue in difficult situations; courage; spirit; a will to compete. “The team lost, but they showed a lot of heart.”
- noun Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.
- verb (transitive, humorous, informal) To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol.
- verb (transitive) To mark a comment, post, reply, etc., with the heart symbol (❤). “She hearted my photos of the kids playing with the dogs.”
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage.
- verb (transitive, masonry) To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater.
- verb (intransitive, agriculture, botany) To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
bravery nerve spirit audacity balls bield boldhead boldness bravehood valor braveness courage courageousness daring fearlessness grit guts intrepidity intrepidness mood bosom pump ticker mettle spunk center centre middle eye kernel
Etymology
From Middle English harte, heorrte, hert, herte, hierte, hirte, horte, huerte, hurte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), from *ḱerd- (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core.
Cognate with Scots hert (“heart”), Yola hart, hearth (“heart”), North Frisian hart, härt (“heart”), Saterland Frisian Haat (“heart”), West Frisian hert (“heart”), Dutch hart (“heart”), West Flemish erte (“heart”), Low German Hart, Hiärt (“heart”), Luxembourgish Häerz (“heart”), German Hertz, Herz, Herze (“heart”), Alemannic German Härz (“heart”), Central Franconian Hatz, Hätz (“heart”), Cimbrian hèertze, hèrtz (“heart”), Mòcheno hèrz (“heart”), Vilamovian haoc (“heart”), Yiddish האַרץ (harts), הערץ (herts, “heart”), Danish hierte, hjerte, hjærte (“heart”), Elfdalian järta (“heart”), Faroese and Icelandic hjarta (“heart”), Jutish jaart (“heart”), Norwegian Bokmål hjerte (“heart”), Norwegian Nynorsk hjarta, hjarte, hjerta, hjerte (“heart”), Swedish hjärta (“heart”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍄𐍉 (hairtō, “heart”); also Cornish kres (“centre, middle; waist”), Irish croí, croidhe (“heart; core; hub; sweetheart”), Manx cree (“heart”), Scottish Gaelic cridhe (“heart; courage; core; nucleus; sweetheart”), Welsh craidd (“centre, core, middle”), Latin cor (“heart”), Greek καρδιά (kardiá, “heart”), Albanian kërth (“askew”), Latgalian sirds (“heart”), Latvian sirde, sirds (“heart”), Lithuanian širdis (“heart”), Old Prussian seyr (“heart”), Belarusian сэ́рца (sérca, “heart”), Bulgarian сърце́ (sărcé, “heart; centre”), Czech and Slovak srdce (“heart”), Macedonian срце (srce, “heart”), Polish serce (“heart”), Russian се́рдце (sérdce, “heart”), Serbo-Croatian ср̏це, sȑce (“heart”), Slovene srce (“heart”), Ukrainian се́рце (sérce, “heart”), Armenian սիրտ (sirt, “heart”), Avestan 𐬰𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛 (zərəd, “heart”), Baluchi زرد (zird, “heart; conscience”), Central Kurdish زر (zir, “heart”), Persian دل (del / dil, “heart; stomach; mind; courage”), Gurani زێڵ (zēł, “heart”), Northern Kurdish dil (“heart”), Ossetian зӕрдӕ (zærdæ, “heart; soul”), Pashto زړه (zrë, “heart”), Talysh dıl (“heart”), Zazaki zerri (“heart”), Hittite 𒆠𒅕 (ker), 𒊮𒅕 (ŠÀ-er, “heart”), Luwian 𒍝𒀀𒅈𒍝 (UZUzārza), 𔖪𔖱𔖪 (zārza, “heart”), Ashkun židi (“heart”), Kamkata-viri j̈arë, zërë (“heart”), Prasuni zër (“heart”), Tocharian A kri (“will”), Tocharian B *käryā- (“heart”), Sanskrit हृद् (hṛd, “heart; soul; breast, chest”).
Most of the modern figurative senses (such as passion or compassion, spirit, inmost feelings, especially love, affection, and courage) were present in Old English. However, the meaning “center” dates from the early 14th century. The verb sense “to love” is from the 1977 I ❤ NY advertising campaign.
The spelling ⟨ear⟩ f
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hollow, muscular organ, which, by contracting rhythmically, keeps up the circulation of the blood.
- noun The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, and the like; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; --usually in a good sense, when no epithet is expressed; the better or lovelier part of our nature; the spring of all our actions and purposes; the seat of moral life and character; the moral affections and character itself; the individual disposition and character; as, a good, tender, loving, bad, hard, or selfish heart.
- verb To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage; to inspirit. [Obs.]
- verb To form a compact center or heart; as, a hearting cabbage.
Etymology [OE. harte, herte, heorte, AS. heorte; akin to OS. herta, OFies. hirte, D. hart, OHG. herza, G. herz, Icel. hjarta, Sw. hjerta, Goth. haírt, Lith. szirdis, Russ. serdtse, Ir. cridhe, L. cor, Gr. Accord, Discord, Cordial, 4th Core, Courage.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heart”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details