cordate

English

Etymology

Latin cord- from cor (“heart”) + -ate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːdeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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  • Homophones: caudate, chordate
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːɹdeɪt/
  • Homophone: chordate

Noun

cordate (plural cordates)

1. (philosophy) Any animal with a heart.
   • 1970, Willard Van Orman Quine, Philosophy of Logic, pages 8–9:

     If, for instance, the context:

     (1) Necessarily all cordates are cordates

     is available in the language, then the desired contrast seems to work out. […] At the same time, as desired, ‘cordate’ remains interchangeable with ‘creature with a heart’, at least in the example (1); for necessarily all cordates, by definition, have hearts.

   • 2002, Timothy McCarthy, Radical Interpretation and Indeterminacy, page 124:

     The organisms in any sample of tigers will almost always happen to exemplify genetic properties more specific than the property shared by exactly the tigers, as well as a number of more inclusive ones such as properties common to all mammals or to all cordates.

   • 2008, Peter Loptson, Freedom, Nature, and World, page 78:

     Sciences of cordates — creatures with hearts — are, for example, less general or comprehensive than sciences of living things, and the latter are less comprehensive and general than sciences of moving things.

   • 2012, K. Mulligan, Language, Truth and Ontology, page 16:

     It is the coextension problem, the problem of the renates and the cordates, the creatures with kidneys and the creatures with hearts.

   • 2021, Ken Akiba, “Vaguenss from the philosophical point of view”, in Apostolos Syropoulos, Basil K. Papadopoulos, editors, Vagueness in the Exact Sciences, page 6:

     However, the property of being a cordate and the property of being a renate are different properties; the former has something to do with hearts and the latter has something to do with kidneys.

2. (archaeology) A heart-shaped hand axe.
   • 1977, D. K. Bhattacharya, Dibyendu Kanti Bhattacharya, Palaeolithic Europe, page 46:

     The upper loam (E) has been reported to have yielded several white-patinated implements, including a large number of pointed handaxes, cordates, ovates and cleavers.

   • 1985, John Wymer, The Palaeolithic Sites of East Anglia, page 107:

     Of the 58 ovates, cordates and cleavers examined, 21 have a tranchet sharpened edge, and 14 are twisted.

   • 2012, Paul Pettitt, Mark White, The British Palaeolithic, page 122:

     Slightly derived handaxes from the Mildenhall glaciofluvial sands, generally in fresh condition and dominated by ovates and cordates.

3. Misspelling of chordate.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cordate.

Usage notes

The sense "any animal with a heart" is chiefly confined to discussion of an example given by Willard Van Orman Quine in his essay "Two Dogmas of Empiricism". Compare renate.

Adjective

idealized shape of a cordate leaf

cordate (comparative more cordate, superlative most cordate)

1. (botany) Heart-shaped, with a point at the apex and a notch at the base.

   Synonym: cordiform

Derived terms

• cordately
• obcordate

Translations

botany: heart-shaped

• Finnish: herttamainen (fi)
• Greek: καρδιοειδής (el) (kardioeidís), καρδιόσχημος (el) (kardióschimos)
• Tagalog: pusuin

Anagrams

• Art Deco, red coat, redcoat

Italian

Noun

cordate f

1. plural of cordata

Anagrams

• cardeto, cedrato, detorca

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

cordātē (not comparable)

1. prudently, sagaciously, wisely

Etymology 2

Adjective

cordāte

1. vocative masculine singular of cordātus

References

• “cordate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cordate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.