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Jul 21, 2023
This week’s theme
Words derived from body parts

This week’s words
visceral
blood-and-guts
hamstring
chopped liver
heart-whole

heart-whole
From my aorta to my apex,
I love you with my whole heart

This week’s comments
AWADmail 1099

Next week’s theme
Words from religion
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

heart-whole

PRONUNCIATION:
(HART-hohl)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Unattached: not in love.
2. Sincere; wholehearted.

ETYMOLOGY:
From heart, from Old English heorte + whole, from Old English hal (whole). Earliest documented use: 1470.

USAGE:
“And Myra had charmed the hearts out of many men, while remaining herself heart-whole. She was still heart-whole although she was engaged to be married to Tony ... ‘Yes, I’ll marry you, Tony, but I don’t love you ... I’m going to marry you because Aunt Clarissa insists I must marry a rich man, and you happen to be the least objectionable rich man who wants me.’”
Juanita Savage; Bandit Love; Dial; 1931.

“[Wolfgang] Stange’s performers work with a heart-whole involvement which gives his productions a true theatrical force.”
Clement Crisp; Dance; Financial Times (London, UK); Jun 2, 2007.

See more usage examples of heart-whole in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. -Ernest Hemingway, author, journalist, Nobel laureate (21 Jul 1899-1961)

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