Happy Valentine’s Day! I was looking for a topic today and rather than shooting each other with arrows of love or delivering chocolate hearts, I decided it would be more appropriate to share some heart-related etymologies with you. I thought of one of my Greek aunts calling me “cardoula-mou” (καρδούλα-μου), which is basically “sweetheart,” and I thought I’d take it from there.
heart: Old English heorte “heart (hollow muscular organ that circulates blood); breast, soul, spirit, will, desire; courage; mind, intellect,” from Proto-Germainic *herton- (source also of Old Saxon herta, Old Frisian herte, Old Norse hjarta, Dutch hart, Old High German herza, German Herz, Gothic hairto).
cardiac: “of or pertaining to the heart,” c. 1600, from French cardiaque (14c.) or directly from Latin cardiacus, from Greek kardiakos “pertaining to the heart,” from kardia “heart.”
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