Meaning
Exactly suited to your own tastes, values, or inclinations; said approvingly of a person who likes what you like or who would act as you would, implying a kindred spirit. The phrase nearly always carries warmth or admiration. Warm and approving; praises shared enthusiasm or kindred temperament. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The OED documents after a person's own heart from Old English, noting that it was originally mainly a biblical use: Old English renderings of the Psalms and Aelfric's account of God's choice of David employ the formula, translating Latin phrases such as secundum cor tuum. The Wycliffite Bible of the late 14th century gives a man aftir myn herte for Acts 13:22, and the best-known wording comes from 1 Samuel 13:14, where Coverdale's 1535 Bible has a man after his owne hert and the King James Version of 1611 a man after his own heart, spoken of David. Secular use grows from the 18th century, with the OED citing a 1714 play's business after my own heart. The biblical source suggested for this idiom is therefore confirmed, but the English formula is much older than the King James Version, and the current sense of shared taste is largely an 18th-century development.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a man after my own heart
- a woman after your own heart
- after my own heart
- someone after your own heart
Usage Examples
- He reorganized the whole toolbox by size; a man after my own heart.
- Anyone who brings soup to a sick colleague is a woman after my own heart.
- The new hire must be after your own heart; she stayed late just to fix the filing system.