It isn't often that we can qualify our time on the radio as a heart-to-heart, but today we can. Our topic? Hearts and their place in the lexicon.

Medicos know the heart as a muscle, and they use the term broken heart to refer to "a rupture of that muscle, as after a myocardial infarction." Folks whose heartsickness—that is, "despondency or depression"—takes a different form know broken heart as a byword for "a state of extreme grief and depression." Some speakers of British dialect whose hearts have been damaged by love are familiar with the Briticism heart-scalded, meaning "tormented by sorrow or remorse."

Only a few letters—but a world of difference—separates the acts of losing one's heart and losing heart. To lose one's heart is "to fall in love"; to simply lose heart, in contrast, is "to give up hope."

A person who has given his or her heart to someone who then experiences a change of heart may sometimes seek heart balm. A change of heart is "a full reversal in position or attitude," while the aptly-named heart balm refers to "compensation for breach of promise to marry or alienation of affections."

We end with a tip for how to keep the cockles of your heart warm. The phrase cockles of the heart refers to "the center or core of one's sentient being." The term cockle is thought to come from either the English word for a type of mollusk or a Latin word meaning "small heart"; our suggestion for warming said cockles is this: keep your heart open.