heartstrings

English edit

From heart +‎ strings.

heartstrings pl (plural only)

(obsolete, anatomy) The tendons once thought to brace the heart. [15th–19th c.]
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
  , I.iii.2.4:
  The midriff and heart-strings do burn and beat very fearfully, and when this vapour or fume is stirred, flieth upward, the heart itself beats […].
(figurative) One's deepest emotions or inner feelings. [from 16th c.]
The sad eyes of the orphan tugged at my heartstrings.
(anatomy) The cord-like tendons that connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve in the heart.
- 2002, Beryl Stretch, BTEC National Health Studies:
  These are the so-called heartstrings or chordae tendineae.
- 2014, Crissy Shreve, BMom:
  As a result, one or more of his chordae tendineae, or heartstrings, ruptured.

the tendons once thought to brace the heart

one's deepest emotions or inner feelings

Chinese:
Mandarin: 心弦 (zh) (xīnxián)
German: innerste Gefühle pl or n
Japanese: 琴線 (ja) (きんせん, kinsen)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: hjerterøtter m pl or f pl
Russian: глубоча́йшие чу́вства n pl (glubočájšije čúvstva), тайники́ души́ m pl (tajnikí duší)

cord-like tendons in the heart