Meaning
To display one's feelings openly rather than keep them hidden, so that everyone can read one's emotions, especially romantic ones. Informal to neutral in register, though the phrasing now feels slightly old-fashioned. The sense has reversed from the original: Iago meant that such open display of one's inner feelings invites attack, whereas today it is a neutral or even affectionate description of emotional transparency. Informal to neutral; affectionate or gently teasing about emotional transparency, with a slightly old-fashioned flavour. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Othello, Act 1 Scene 1 (The Phrase Finder dates the play 1604 and treats this as the phrase's first recorded use). Explaining to Roderigo that he serves Othello only for his own ends, Iago vows it would be folly to 'wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at: I am not what I am' (Folger text; daws are jackdaws). The Phrase Finder lists the expression among the phrases coined by Shakespeare, and reports - while discounting - the folk story that medieval knights wore their lady's colours tied to their sleeves at jousts, noting the expression itself is not recorded before the play. On its route into general English the sense flipped: Iago says he would be a fool to expose his heart, while the modern idiom treats open display of feeling as honest and even endearing.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- her heart on her sleeve
- wear one's heart upon one's sleeve
- wearing his heart on his sleeve
Usage Examples
- You always know how Amina feels about a project - she wears her heart on her sleeve in every meeting.
- Rather than wear his heart on his sleeve at the negotiating table, he saved his objections for the debrief.
- It was a performance with its heart on its sleeve, and the audience loved it for exactly that.