Heart Word Locus Feelings Intuitions Central Sense Cardio

As the heart is the central organ of the human body, so the word heart has come to mean a central location of an organization or system, as well as being used to describe courage and generosity.

We can see the Germanic influences in the word heart by looking at the Old Saxon herta and the German herz. If we go back even further, however, we see the word also has ties to the Greek kardia, which makes sense when we consider that the prefix cardio refers to the heart. For example, a cardio workout is one that gets the heart pumping harder, and a cardiologist is a doctor of the heart. If someone asks that you "have a heart," however, they are appealing to your sense of generosity not to the blood-pumping organ.