Heort

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The Old English term for the heart, the organ that pumps blood and also the seat of feeling and courage
2. An archaic Anglo-Saxon word meaning the heart, both the physical organ and the inner seat of emotion and bravery
3. Old English for the heart, used for the bodily organ as well as for one's inner feelings, spirit and resolve

Etymology: Old English "heort" meant "heart," and it is one of the few English words whose ancestry runs back to a shared Germanic root that also gave German "Herz" and Latin "cor" (through a different branch of Indo-European). The Old English form kept the same core sense it has today: the organ that pumps blood, and by extension the seat of feeling, courage and thought. Medieval English writers used it for all of these at once, so a phrase like "a stout heart" could mean either bodily vigour or moral bravery. The spelling shows the change clearly. Old English "heort" was pronounced with a short vowel and a rolled or trilled r, and over the centuries the vowel lengthened and the r weakened until Middle English spelled it "herte" and then "hert" before the modern "heart" settled in during the Early Modern period. The silent "a" in our spelling is a sign that scribes had already begun to let the vowel drift away from the spelling, leaving the word looking nothing like its Old English form.

Synonyms: heart