heartburn

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English herte-brine,^[2][3] formed from Middle English herte + brine (“burning, fire”).^[2][4] Its second part, Middle English brine (also brune), is from Old English bryne (“a burning, fire”).^[2][5][6] In later use the word was taken as a compound of heart and the noun burn.^[4][7][3] The medical sense partly follows Latin cardialgia or its source, Ancient Greek καρδιαλγία (kardialgía),^[4] and Dictionary.com takes it as a translation of the Greek word.^[8] Etymonline compares cardiac for the same confusion of heart and stomach.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Burning passion, lust: before 1325, in a copy of the Genesis and Exodus of about 1250.^[4][2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "lust" is recorded only once and soon died out.^[4][7] About 1440 the word appears in a medical book for a burning pain in the chest,^[4][2] which Etymonline dates to the mid-15th century^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th century;^[9] the Shorter Oxford dates this sense only to the late 16th century.^[7] The pain is now explained as stomach acid rising into the oesophagus.^[4][10] Middle English also had herte-brenning, "anger, bitterness" (about 1400) and later "heartburn" (mid-15th century).^[3] From 1579 heartburn could mean jealousy, resentment or rankling discontent,^[4] a sense the Shorter Oxford calls now rare or obsolete,^[7] and later worry or anxiety.^[4] A verb heartburn, to make jealous or full of hatred, was used from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century.^[7] In late 19th-century slang a heartburn was a bad cigar.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1325 – burning passion, lust (obsolete).^[4][2]
• c. 1440 – a burning pain in the chest; indigestion.^[4][2]
• 1579 – jealousy, resentment; later worry, anxiety.^[4]
• 1889 – slang, a bad cigar.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A burning pain behind the breastbone, caused by acid from the stomach rising into the oesophagus; pyrosis or cardialgia: Spicy food gives him heartburn.^[10][9][4]
2. (now rare) Jealousy, resentment or worry; heartburning.^[9][4][7]
3. (obsolete, before 1325) Burning passion; lust.^[4][2][7]

Related words

• heart
• burn
• heartburning
• cardiac

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com