HEART

Where it comes from

From Middle English harte, heorrte, hert, herte, hierte, hirte, horte, huerte, hurte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), from *ḱerd- (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core. Cognate with Scots hert (“heart”), Yola hart, hearth (“heart”), North Frisian hart, härt (“heart”), Saterland Frisian Haat (“heart”), West Frisian hert (“heart”), Dutch hart (“heart”), West Flemish erte (“heart”), Low German Hart, Hiärt (“heart”), Luxembourgish Häerz (“heart”), German Hertz, Herz, Herze (“heart”), Alemannic German Härz (“heart”), Central Franconian Hatz, Hätz (“heart”), Cimbrian hèertze, hèrtz (“heart”), Mòcheno hèrz (“heart”), Vilamovian haoc (“heart”), Yiddish האַרץ (harts), הערץ (herts, “heart”), Danish hierte, hjerte, hjærte (“heart”), Elfdalian järta (“heart”), Faroese and Icelandic hjarta (“heart”), Jutish jaart (“heart”), Norwegian Bokmål hjerte (“heart”), Norwegian Nynorsk hjarta, hjarte, hjerta, hjerte (“heart”), Swedish hjärta (“heart”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍄𐍉 (hairtō, “heart”); also Cornish kres (“centre, middle; waist”), Irish croí, croidhe (“heart; core; hub; sweetheart”), Manx cree (“heart”), Scottish Gaelic cridhe (“heart; courage; core; nucleus; sweetheart”), Welsh craidd (“centre, core, middle”), Latin cor (“heart”), Greek καρδιά (kardiá, “heart”), Albanian kërth (“askew”), Latgalian sirds (“heart”), Latvian sirde, sirds (“heart”), Lithuanian širdis (“heart”), Old Prussian seyr (“heart”), Belarusian сэ́рца (sérca, “heart”), Bulgarian сърце́ (sărcé, “heart; centre”), Czech and Slovak srdce (“heart”), Macedonian срце (srce, “heart”), Polish serce (“heart”), Russian се́рдце (sérdce, “heart”), Serbo-Croatian ср̏це, sȑce (“heart”), Slovene srce (“heart”), Ukrainian се́рце (sérce, “heart”), Armenian սիրտ (sirt, “heart”), Avestan 𐬰𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛 (zərəd, “heart”), Baluchi زرد (zird, “heart; conscience”), Central Kurdish زر (zir, “heart”), Persian دل (del / dil, “heart; stomach; mind; courage”), Gurani زێڵ (zēł, “heart”), Northern Kurdish dil (“heart”), Ossetian зӕрдӕ (zærdæ, “heart; soul”), Pashto زړه (zrë, “heart”), Talysh dıl (“heart”), Zazaki zerri (“heart”), Hittite 𒆠𒅕 (ker), 𒊮𒅕 (ŠÀ-er, “heart”), Luwian 𒍝𒀀𒅈𒍝 (UZUzārza), 𔖪𔖱𔖪 (zārza, “heart”), Ashkun židi (“heart”), Kamkata-viri j̈arë, zërë (“heart”), Prasuni zër (“heart”), Tocharian A kri (“will”), Tocharian B *käryā- (“heart”), Sanskrit हृद् (hṛd, “heart; soul; breast, chest”). Most of the modern figurative senses (such as passion or compassion, spirit, inmost feelings, especially love, affection, and courage) were present in Old English. However, the meaning “center” dates from the early 14th century. The verb sense “to love” is from the 1977 I ❤ NY advertising campaign. The spelling ⟨ear⟩ for /ɑː(ɹ)/ is paralleled by hearken and hearth, but is problematic since an Early Modern variant with /ɛːr/ can be posited for those words, but not heart. Perhaps it represents Middle Scots hart /hɛːrt/ (reflecting the Scots lengthening of /a/ before /r/ then a consonant, then the early actuation of the Great Vowel Shift in Scots) or a parallel development in Northern England. Alternatively, a back-spelling by speakers of dialects where preconsonantal /ɛːr/ was shortened early, allowing it to undergo the late Middle English lowering to /ar/ (reflected in forms such as larn "learn") is possible.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

HEART in OUTLIER

It has fitted 1 board so far. 33 players have found it across Outlier's history.

It first turned up on Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.

Built from these letters

HEART starts with H and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read AEHRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.

Same letters, different word

4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start HEART

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 140