The word “heart” is used in English to refer to positive emotions like love, charity, and generosity, as well as courage and determination. It is a common expression in English-speaking societies and is often used to complement an individual. The idea of a visual heart depicting love is ancient and is a mainstay of self-expression. Being “all heart” or having “heart” is a positive expression of desirable values in a person.
When English speakers say someone is “all heart,” they use this basic idiom to say that the person is filled with positive attributes such as love, charity, goodwill, and generosity. Those in English-speaking societies often use this phrase and similar ones to complement an individual. For example, someone might say that someone else “has a lot of heart” or “has a big heart.” A slightly different use of the word is common in expressing total commitment or affection, where “with all my heart” is a common phrase.
The use of the word “heart” to refer to human emotions is ancient and common to many languages around the world. For centuries, the idea of a visual heart depicting love has been a mainstay of self-expression. On Valentine’s Day, a long-standing tradition in English-speaking societies, this idea is most prominent. A simple drawing of a symmetrical shape with two rounded prongs was used to represent this “emotional heart” and it shows up everywhere from a Valentine’s Day gift to a deck of playing cards.
Another use of the word “heart” in English is related not to love, but to another different set of human emotions. Modern English speakers might say that someone “has heart” or “has a lot of heart.” This generally refers to someone with courage, fortitude, or determination. In many cases, speakers use this phrase, which is slightly different from saying “all my heart,” to refer to a person’s courage, with positive and negative forms applied. For example, telling someone they “don’t have the heart” to do something often implies that the person doesn’t have the strength or will to do something. A similar phrase, “(her) heart of him was not in it,” implies that the person performed an action without believing it.
In general, being “all heart” or having “heart” is a positive expression of desirable values in a person. As mentioned above, this can easily be changed to the conditional form, i.e. “(he or she) has a big heart.” In some rare cases, English speakers might also refer to someone who is “lion-hearted” or “having the heart of a lion.” “All heart” and similar phrases work on the same basic concept: that the heart, in addition to being a physical organ that pumps blood, is in some way responsible for the range of human characteristics that make up a person’s individual personality.
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