Ever wondered what it means to have a ‘heart-to-heart’ talk? Or what it meant to be “faint of heart”? In this second part, we continue the list of top heart phrases in common use and break down what they mean.
Read part one here.
6. ‘(Have a) Heart-to-Heart Talk‘
Meaning: (Have an) honest conversation.
Want to find out what’s bothering your teenage son? Or need to break the bad news on your long-time non-performing employee? A heart-to-heart talk is what you need to have.
A heart-to-heart talk means you open up in complete and glorious candour about the true state of thought that pervades your mind, and talk freely and confidingly in supreme intimacy, normally with one person. But this is never a one-way broadcast.
A heart-to-heart conversation means both parties commune verbally (with non-verbal cues sprinkled in for good measure), with the idea of tuning both hearts to the same frequency – the frequency of mutual understanding.
So questions are asked, answers are given, concerns are exchanged and fears are allayed, all by removing the barrier between two ‘hearts’ and matching their wavelengths, so a thought, feeling or emotion goes from heart straight to another.
7. ‘(One’s) Heart Skipped a Beat‘
Meaning: (One was) impressed.
A literal occurrence of this event would necessitate a visit to the nearest cardiologist for arrhythmia, but this phraseology is typically employed allegorically to convey that one is deeply affected positively by an impressive sight or experience.
Saw your prince charming on a horse in shining armour? Your heart may skip a beat from being impressed (although most people today would be scared out of their wits to first encounter their beau in such a startling state of gallivanting).
This idiomatic suspension of sinus rhythm can also occur when you see a beautiful Renaissance painting, a sumptuous sports-car, or a ruinous Italian luxury-bag, depending on what sinks your boat, but each time, at the very least, it leaves you reminded that you do have a beating heart beneath that cold, stony ribcage.
8. ‘(Be) Faint of Heart‘
Meaning: (Be) short on courage.
Got the heebie-jeebies when you have to face a moment of conflict? Can’t imagine standing up to a bully, watching a wound being stitched up, or riding a ferris wheel? Then you might just be faint of heart.
Don’t mistake us – your heart may be very large indeed (figuratively speaking, of course), but it just may not be thick enough to bear the stress of a potential scare or fight.
And if that indeed is the case, you don’t have to take it to heart; just take heart instead, from the fact that you don’t have a heart of stone!
9. ‘Warm the cockles of (one’s) heart‘
Meaning: Make (one) happy.
When that baby does something extremely cute, or after being in the cold for several hours you finally see that cafe for a warm cuppa, or you see or receive an act of kindness in progress, or indeed you watch that feel-good movie, or you receive a text message with some happy news, it happens – it warms the cockles of your heart.
To warm the cockles (possibly from ‘cochlea’, meaning ventricles) of one’s heart means to make someone feel all nice and fuzzy in the ribcage, so that the person is pleased and enters a certain state of mind where any complaints with life are under suspension, and they smile, both inwardly and outwardly, with often tears in their eyes.
10. ‘In (One’s) Heart of Hearts ‘
Meaning: Deep within.
Let’s be clear about one thing – you have only one heart. Sure, the two halves of your heart are often referred to as the left heart and the right heart, but they aren’t two; at least, not in the way your eyes and ears are. So what’s this heart of hearts, which surely denotes there are many?
Had an intuition about how that holiday would turn out? Or fostered an ambition for what you truly wanted to do in life, while saying and doing something else all the time? Then you knew it in your heart of hearts.
To know something in your heart of hearts is to know it deep within you.
In culture, remember, the heart is ascribed the quality of knowing and feeling, although no evidence exists in science to echo this. So while the brain’s excellent at thinking, the heart excels at intuition. But this intuitive core is covered with so many layers of cynicism, people-pleasing and self-deception, that it ends up as a heart of its own, buried deep within the other layers, remaining your heart of hearts.
