Meaning
Deep in one's private, innermost feelings or conscience, beyond what one admits outwardly: a conviction held at the very core of the emotional self, typically an inconvenient truth one has been avoiding. Neutral to literary in register and usually reserved for confessions and admissions rather than casual remarks. The sense is Shakespeare's own, though his singular 'heart of heart' has settled into the plural. Literary but widely understood; typically signals an intimate admission or reluctant acceptance of a buried truth. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2 (written c. 1599-1602). Praising Horatio as a man 'not passion's slave', Hamlet says he will wear such a man 'In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart' (Folger text) - a singular, superlative-style construction marking the innermost part of the heart. Word Histories, citing the 1604 Second Quarto, treats the singular form as Shakespeare's coinage and records no earlier use. The now-standard plural surfaced in William Davenant's 1676 adaptation of Hamlet ('in my hearts core, I, in my heart of hearts'), while a related 'heart's heart' appears in Joshua Sylvester's 1611 translation of Du Bartas. Verdict: coined by Shakespeare in the singular; the familiar plural is a later seventeenth-century development, spread through the play's uniquely intense quotation culture of schoolroom memorisation and reprints.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- heart of hearts
- in his heart of hearts
- in my heart of hearts
- in your heart of hearts
Usage Examples
- In my heart of hearts, I knew the job offer was wrong for me, but the salary was hard to refuse.
- She asked whether, in his heart of hearts, he had ever regretted leaving the orchestra.
- If you search your heart of hearts, you will admit that the criticism was fair.