English Online Dictionary. What means heart? What does heart mean?
English
Alternative forms
- hart, harte, hearte (all obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English herte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱérd (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core.
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.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /hɑːt/
- (General American) enPR: härt, IPA(key): /hɑɹt/
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
- Homophone: hart
Noun
heart (countable and uncountable, plural hearts)
- (anatomy) A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
- (uncountable) One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character.
- 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.
- Emotional strength that allows one to continue in difficult situations; courage; spirit; a will to compete.
- Synonyms: bravery, nerve, spirit; see also Thesaurus:courage
- 2008, "Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers," Quaker Action (magazine), vol. 89, no. 3, page 8:
- "We provided a lot of brains and a lot of heart to the response when it was needed," says Sandra Sanchez, director of AFSC's Immigrants' Voice Program in Des Moines.
- Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.
- (archaic) A term of affectionate or kindly and familiar address.
- Synonyms: honey, sugar; see also Thesaurus:sweetheart
- (obsolete, except in the phrase "by heart") Memory.
- (figurative) A wight or being.
- A conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥.
- (card games) A playing card of the suit hearts featuring one or more heart-shaped symbols.
- (cartomancy) The twenty-fourth Lenormand card.
- (figurative) The centre, essence, or core.
- Synonyms: crux, gist; see also Thesaurus:gist
Derived terms
Descendants
- Torres Strait Creole: at
- → Bengali: হার্ট (harṭ)
- → Cantonese: heart
- → Cebuano: Heart
- → Irish: hart
- → Japanese: ハート (hāto); ハツ (hatsu) (from hearts)
- → Korean: 하트 (hateu)
- → Tagalog: Heart
Translations
Verb
heart (third-person singular simple present hearts, present participle hearting, simple past and past participle hearted)
- (transitive, humorous, informal) To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol. [from late 20th c.]
- Synonyms: love, less than three
- 2006, Susan Reinhardt, Bulldog doesn't have to rely on the kindness of strangers to draw attention, Citizen-Times.com
- I guess at this point we were supposed to feel elated she'd come to her senses and decided she hearts dogs after all.
- 2008 July 25, "The Media Hearts Obama?", On The Media, National Public Radio
- (transitive) To mark a comment, post, reply, etc., with the heart symbol (❤).
- Synonym: love
- Coordinate terms: like, unlike
- (transitive, obsolete) To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage.
- (transitive, masonry) To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater.
- (intransitive, agriculture, botany) To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage.
Translations
See also
- <3, ♥, ❤, 🫀
References
Further reading
- heart on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- Erath, rehat, ather-, Earth, Herta, Harte, rathe, Rathe, earth, th'are, thare, hater, Herat, Taher, Terah, Thera
Chinese
Etymology
From English heart.
Pronunciation
Noun
heart
- (Hong Kong Cantonese, figuratively) passion; determination (Classifier: 個／个 c)
- 有heart [Cantonese] ― jau5 haat1 [Jyutping] ― passionate
- 冇heart [Cantonese] ― mou5 haat1 [Jyutping] ― without passion