heartstrings
English
Alternative forms
- heart-strings
- heart strings
Etymology
From heart + strings.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhɑːtstɹɪŋz/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
heartstrings pl (plural only)
- (obsolete, anatomy) The tendons once thought to brace the heart. [15th-19th c.]
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):, I.iii.2.4:
- The midriff and heart-strings do burn and beat very fearfully, and when this vapour or fume is stirred, flieth upward, the heart itself beats […].
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- (figuratively) One's deepest emotions or inner feelings. [from 16th c.]
- (anatomy) The cord-like tendons that connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve in the heart.
- 2002, Beryl Stretch, BTEC National Health Studies
- These are the so-called heartstrings or chordae tendineae.
- 2014, Crissy Shreve, BMom:
- As a result, one or more of his chordae tendineae, or heartstrings, ruptured.
- 2002, Beryl Stretch, BTEC National Health Studies
Synonyms
- (cord-like tendons): chorda tendinea/chordae tendineae
Translations
the tendons once thought to brace the heart
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one's deepest emotions or inner feelings
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cord-like tendons in the heart
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