Friday, February 24, 2017

Heartfelt Expressions

What are the expressions we take for granted that relate to the heart? Dailywritingtips.com has 70 idioms with Heart.

Here's what they say:  "Idioms that refer to what is the fanciful seat of our emotions as well as the factual core of our circulatory system are understandably numerous. Here’s a list of phrases and expressions that include heart and, for the most part, pertain to human feelings".  We don't even get to the letter 'c' with the first 10:

1. a big heart: said of someone kind and loving
2. after my own heart: said of someone with similar preferences or values
3. a heart of gold: see “a big heart”
4. a heart of stone: said of someone without sympathy
5. all heart: see “a big heart”; sometimes used sarcastically to mean the opposite
6. at heart: basically
7. bare (one’s) heart: share one’s feelings or thoughts
8. bleeding heart: said of someone who is conspicuously or excessively generous
9. break (one’s) heart: cause someone emotional distress
10. by heart: from memory

Their listing of popular articles is intriguing so I checked out   100 small but expressive interjections. Here are some new ones for me:

Hamana-hamana, variously spelled, and duplicated as needed, implies speechless embarrassment.

Hup, from the sound-off a military cadence chant, signals beginning an exerting task.

Neener-neener, often uttered in a series of three repetitions, is a taunt.

Zoinks is an expression of surprise or amazement popularized by the cartoon character Shaggy, of Scooby Doo fame.

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