The traditional "heart shape" appears on a 1910 St. Valentine's Day card.

The heart (♥) has long been used as a symbol to refer to the spiritual, emotional, moral, and in the past also intellectual core of a human being. As the heart was once widely believed to be the seat of the human mind, the word heart continues to be used poetically to refer to the soul, and stylized depictions of hearts are extremely prevalent symbols representing love. However, more realistic depictions of human hearts tend to have macabre connotations of death and violence, quite unlike the concepts associated with the poetic and symbolic heart. This discrepancy is a common source of dark humor. Valentines Day postcard, c. ... Valentines Day postcard, c. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... St. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... Emotional redirects here. ... -1... Intelligence is the mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the self-aware essence unique to a particular living being. ... Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. ... The heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... A death head wearing the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, on the sarcophagus of Habsburg emperor Charles VI in the crypt of the Capuchin church in Vienna, Austria. ... For the more specialised meaning of Connotation in semiotics, see connotation (semiotics). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

As metaphor

In mythology, spirituality and religion

In religious texts such as the Bible [1], the heart has historically been ascribed much mystical significance, either as metaphor or as an organ genuinely believed to have spiritual or divine attributes. This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In the Bible, this idea emerges in the earliest passages; Genesis 6:5 situates the thoughts of evil men in their hearts, and Exodus 5 through 12 speak repeatedly of the Lord "hardening Pharaoh's heart." By this it is meant that God made Pharaoh resolve not to let the Israelite slaves leave Egypt, in order to bring judgment against Pharaoh and demonstrate his power: "'Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them'" (Exodus 10:1). In the Book of Jeremiah 17:9, it is written that the "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," and that the Lord is the judge who "tries" the human heart. Genesis (‎, Greek: Γένεσις, meaning birth, creation, cause, beginning, source or origin) is the first book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. ... Exodus is the second book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. ... In the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price of Latter-day Saint theology, Pharaoh is the proper name of the first king of Egypt. ... The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah (יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirməyāhū in Hebrew), is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaisms Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianitys Old Testament. ...

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are traditional Roman Catholic devotional images. Jesus Sacred Heart The Sacred Heart is a devotional name used by some Roman Catholics to refer to Jesus. ... The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic doctrine which asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic... A Devotion in Christianity has come to mean time spent alone or in a small group of people reading and studying the Bible in a way as it relates to ones spiritual health and wellbeing. ...

Similarly, in Egyptian mythology, the heart was weighed in a balance against the feather of Ma'at, symbolising truth, in the judgment of the dead in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Egyptian sources do not actually reveal whether the heart had to be lighter or heavier than the feather for the deceased to pass into paradise - all depictions show only the weighing of the heart, not the actual results, heavier or lighter. (See also Egyptian soul). Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam. ... Two feathers Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. ... [1] Maat, reconstructed to have been pronounced as * (Muh-aht)[2], was the Ancient Egyptian concept of law, morality, and justice[3] which was deified as a goddess. ... A common dictionary definition of truth is agreement with fact or reality.[1] There is no single definition of truth about which the majority of philosophers agree. ... The Book of the Dead comd A Section of Plate 3 from the Papyrus of Ani. ... In Egyptian mythology, the human soul is made up of seven parts: the Ren, Sekhem, the Akh, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Sekhu. ...

European traditional heart symbol.

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

In early science and philosophy

Many classical and medieval philosophers and scientists, including Aristotle, considered the heart the seat of thought, reason or emotion, often rejecting the value of the brain. Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Personification of thought (Greek Εννοια) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. ... For other uses, see Reason (disambiguation). ... Emotional redirects here. ... In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behaviour. ...

The Roman physician Galen located the seat of the passions in the liver, the seat of reason in the brain, and considered the heart to be the seat of the emotions. While Galen's identification of the heart with emotion were proposed as a part of his theory of the circulatory system, the heart has continued to be used as a symbolic source of human emotions even after the rejection of such beliefs. Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... Galen. ... The liver is an organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. ... In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behaviour. ... Emotional redirects here. ... Diagram of the human circulatory system. ...

The Stoics taught that the heart was the seat of the human soul. A restored Stoa in Athens. ...

As icon

In European traditional art and folklore, the heart symbol is drawn in a stylized shape. This shape is typically colored red, suggesting both blood and, in many cultures, passion and strong emotion. The hearts and the diamonds are the two red suits in most playing card decks. The shape is particularly associated with romantic poetry; it is often seen on St. Valentine's Day cards, candy boxes, and similar popular culture artifacts as a symbol of romantic love. World map showing the location of Europe. ... Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–750 nm. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ... The four French playing card suits used primarily in the English-speaking world: spades(♠), hearts(), diamonds() and clubs(♣). In playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Note: This article primarily discusses philosophical ideologies in relation to the subject of romantic love. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, a making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... St. ... Greeting cards on display at retail. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Confectionery. ... Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... Note: This article primarily discusses philosophical ideologies in relation to the subject of romantic love. ...

What the traditional "heart shape" actually depicts is a matter of some controversy. It only vaguely resembles the human heart. Some people claim that it actually depicts the heart of a cow, a more readily available sight to most people in past centuries than an actual human heart. However, while bovine hearts are more similar to the iconic heart shape, the resemblance is still slight. The shape does resemble that of the three-chambered heart of the turtle, and that of the human male prostate gland, but it is very unlikely that the image was patterned after either of these organs. Male Anatomy The prostate is a gland that is part of male mammalian sex organs. ...

Yoni Emblem resembling the symbol of the Heart; India, 19th Century

The "heart" shape could also be considered to depict features of the human female body, such as the female's pubic mound or spread vulva. A Sumerian cuneiform symbol for "woman" closely resembles the heart shape, and is believed to directly depict the pubic mound. The tantric symbol of the "Yoni" is another example of a heart-shaped abstraction of a woman's vulva. In fact, the symmetry resembles the vulva far more than the asymmetry of the organ. In the introduction to the Vagina Monologues Gloria Steinem writes, "[The heart] was reduced from power to romance by centuries of male dominance." Image File history File links Size of this preview: 531 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (635 × 717 pixel, file size: 171 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 19th Century Relief Yoni emblem from South India held in the John Dugger & David Medalla Collection - artist unknown, Photograph by Jeff Teasdale published in from the... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 531 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (635 × 717 pixel, file size: 171 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 19th Century Relief Yoni emblem from South India held in the John Dugger & David Medalla Collection - artist unknown, Photograph by Jeff Teasdale published in from the... In human anatomy or in mammals in general, the mons pubis (Latin, pubic mound), also known simply as the mons, is the soft mound of flesh present in both genders just above the genitals, raised above the surrounding area due to a pad of fat lying just beneath it which... The external genital organs of the female are collectively known as the vulva (plural vulvae, vulvas)[1] or genitalia feminina externa[2]. In common speech, the term vagina is often used improperly to refer to the vulva or female genitals generally, even though, strictly speaking, the vagina is a specific... Sumerian ( native tongue) was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language in the beginning of the 2nd millenium BCE, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific... The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Gloria Steinem at news conference, Womens Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist icon, journalist and womens rights advocate. ...

Others maintain that the heart resembles the shape of the female breasts or the female buttocks. A pregnant womans breasts. ... Bith buttocks. ...

Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a silphium seed or fruit.

Another possible origin can be seen on the coins of the ancient city of Cyrene, some of which depict the seeds or fruit of the now-extinct silphium plant. The seeds are distinctly heart-shaped. Since this plant was widely used as an ancient herbal contraceptive or abortifacient, this shape may have come to be associated with sexuality and love. Image File history File links Cyrenecoin. ... Image File history File links Cyrenecoin. ... Cyrene, the ancient Greek city (in present-day Libya) was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region and gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times. ... Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a stalk of Silphium. ... Cyrene, the ancient Greek city (in present-day Libya) was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region and gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times. ... Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a stalk of Silphium. ... An abortifacient is a substance that induces miscarriage or abortion. ... Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. ...

The "heart" shape is formed by the back and wings of a dove, which was associated with Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love. Subfamilies see article text Feral Rock Pigeon beside Weiming Lake, Peking University Dove redirects here. ... For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation). ... Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture For the 1934 film, see, see The Goddess (1934 film). ... Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. ...

The heart-shaped hole made by nature on a leaf

The most common emoticon for the heart is <3. In Unicode, the heart symbol is U+2665, and it can thus be generated in HTML by typing &#x2665; or &#9829;, or by the HTML entity &hearts;. Mathematically, a heart-shaped figure, called a cardioid, can be represented by plotting a graph of either (x² + y² − 1)³ = x²y³ or, in polar form, r = 1 − sin(θ) Image File history File links Heartleaf. ... Image File history File links Heartleaf. ... An emoticon (pronounced (IPA) ) is a small piece of specialized ASCII art (usually two to five characters, always on a single line) used in text messages as informal markup to indicate emotions and attitudes that would be conveyed by body language in face-to-face communications. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. ... In geometry, the cardioid is an epicycloid which has one and only one cusp. ...

I ♥

I ♥ (pronounced "I love" or "I heart") is a slang expression used to indicate love or affection, sometimes with a connotation that the feeling is superficial or juvenile. It is a play upon Milton Glaser's classic logo, I ♥ NY (pronounced I Love New York). In the U.S., it can be used to show that one has a crush on someone or are in love with someone, being used as I ♥ someone's name or as Someone ♥ Someone else. It is also present in some recent titles, e.g. the film I ♥ Huckabees or the video game We ♥ Katamari. Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. ... A kiss can express affection. ... Milton Glaser, 2003 I Love New York campaign by Milton Glaser. ... I Love New York logo, by Milton Glaser. ... I ♥ Huckabees is a film released in 2004. ... We ♥ Katamari , Everybody Loves Katamari Damacy) is a video game published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. ...

The widespread use of this expression has inspired many parodies. Originally pronounced "I love", the phrase has recently been used by young hipsters who have taken to facetiously verbalizing it as "I heart". Other examples include: A hipster is a person who is strongly associated with a subculture that considers itself hip. ...

• Parody bumper stickers have included "I ♠ My Cat" (spade being a homonym and common pun for spayed), "I ♣ My Wife" (club meaning blunt object, referring to spousal abuse), or "I ♣ Seals" (referring to seal clubbing).
• A The Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson pictured Godzilla driving a car with an "I 8 NY" bumper sticker (8 meaning ate).
• Playboy once reported that a novelties manufacturer was offering little square stickers picturing a screw (representing a vulgar slang term), to be placed stealthily over the heart in stickers such as "I ♥ My Pomeranian" or whatever breed.
• T-shirts parodying this phrase and Unicode have read "I � Unicode", � being the "replacement character" used on a Macintosh when the font in question does not contain a graphic for the Unicode character in question, or "I ☐ Unicode", as some Windows fonts show.
• The usual ASCII emoticon for the heart symbol is <3, depicting a heart rotated 90 degrees clockwise. It is sometimes playfully verbalized as "I lessthanthree...".

Bumper stickers are often used on commercial vehicles so that employers can receive feedback about the driving habits of their employees A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants... Spaying and neutering are the respective processes of female and male animal sterilization, in order to keep them from producing offspring. ... It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled Club (law enforcement). ... Spousal abuse refers to a wide spectrum of abuse. ... ... The Far Side was a popular one-panel syndicated comic created by Gary Larson. ... Gary Larson is the creator of The Far Side, a (sometimes subdivided) single-panel comic strip which appeared in many newspapers for fourteen years until Larsons retirement January 1, 1995. ... For other uses, see Godzilla (disambiguation). ... Playboy is an American mens magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. ... Screws come in a variety of shapes and sizes for different purposes. ... T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... ASCII art, an artistic medium relying primarily on computers for presentation, consists of pictures pieced together from characters (preferably from the 95 printable characters defined by ASCII). ... An emoticon (pronounced (IPA) ) is a small piece of specialized ASCII art (usually two to five characters, always on a single line) used in text messages as informal markup to indicate emotions and attitudes that would be conveyed by body language in face-to-face communications. ...

Additional images

2C-B pill. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (989x629, 102 KB) 2C-B Pill. ... 2C-B, or 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxybenzeneethanamine) is a class of phenethylamine, a lesser-known psychedelic drug of the 2C family, an entactogen. ...

Mating Mute Swans may appear to make a negative space heart. Mating Swans making a lovers heart. ... Binomial name (Gmelin, 1789) Synonyms Anas olor Gmelin, 1789 Cygnus olor immutabilis var. ... In art, negative space is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. ...

A red potato exhibiting gemination, an effect brought about by a partial twinning during development. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 617 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1711 × 1662 pixel, file size: 669 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

See also

• Heart
• Heart (Anthropology)
• Hearts (suit in cards)
• Soul
• Sacred Heart of Jesus
• Anahata
• Heartagram
• I♥... (BBC television & compilation album brand)

The heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... Considered from the anthropological point of view, in the pre-Christian era the corporeal, spiritual and mental character of the human being is attributed to the heart. ... Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ... Hearts (&#9829;) is one of the four suits found in playing cards. ... The four French playing card suits used primarily in the English-speaking world: spades(♠), hearts(), diamonds() and clubs(♣). In playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. ... The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the self-aware essence unique to a particular living being. ... Jesus Sacred Heart The Sacred Heart is a devotional name used by some Roman Catholics to refer to Jesus. ... Anahata is the fourth primary chakra according to the Hindu Yogic and Tantric (Shakta) traditions. ... This article refers to the Finnish band. ... I♥... is a British television and compilation album brand by the BBC. I♥...the 1970s I ♥ 1970 premiered on 22 July 2000 in the UK, with the final part I ♥ 1979 premiering on 23 September 2000. ...

References

• The Shape of My Heart: Where did the ubiquitous Valentine's symbol come from? by Keelin McDonell, Slate.com.

• www.heartsymbol.com: The Heart Symbol - Origin, History And Significance by Prof. Armin Dietz