heart
The muscular organ that pumps blood; the centre of emotion.
Etymology
From Old English heorte, from Proto-Germanic *hertō, from PIE *ḱerd- "heart, core, centre." The palatal *ḱ- became h- in Germanic (centum/satem split). This root gives us "cardiac" (Greek kardía), "courage" (Latin cor → Old French corage, "heart-ness"), "core," "concord," "discord," "record," and "accord."
The Journey: *ḱerd- → heart
*ḱerd-
*hertō
heorte
herte
heart
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *ḱerd-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | kardía |
| Latin | cor (gen. cordis) |
| Hittite | kard- |
| Armenian | sirt |
| Sanskrit | hṛ́d |
| Old Irish | cride |
| Lithuanian | širdìs |
Did You Know?
Courage literally means "heart-ness" — from Latin cor "heart" + -age. Record means "to pass back through the heart" (Latin re- + cor). Concord is "hearts together," discord is "hearts apart." Latin crēdō "to believe" likely derives from *ḱred-dʰeh₁- "to place one's heart (in)" — making "credible" another heart word.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱerd-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.