heartache
nounUK /ˈhɑːteɪk/
Etymology From Middle English heorteece, heorte-ece, from Old English heorteċe, equivalent to heart + ache. Blends both literal and figurative aspects, as emotional distress sometimes includes a physical element of chest discomfort. Compare heartbreak § Etymology, where the literal aspect is lesser, though it still can be said to have a physiological basis.
1
Emotional distress or pain, often caused by a loved one or their absence.
- […]: to dye, to ſleepe, / No more; and by a ſleepe, to ſay we end / The Heart-ake, and the thouſand Naturall ſhockes / That Fleſh is heyre too?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265:
- “Well done, sister! I honour your esprit du corps. When I am a wife, I mean to be just as staunch myself; and I wish my friends in general would be so too. It would save me many a heart ache.”1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 94:
3 more examples
- She was carrying an armful of Bibles for her class, and such was her view of life that events which produced heartache in others wrought beatific smiles upon her—an enviable result, although, in the opinion of Angel, it was obtained by a curiously unnatural sacrifice of humanity to mysticism.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XL, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:
- Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter II, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
- While this town is busy sleeping / All the noise has died away / I walk the streets to stop my weeping / 'Cause she'll never change her ways / But don't fool yourself / She was heartache from the moment that you met her / Ah, my heart feels so still as I try to find the will to forget her, somehow / Oh, I think I've forgotten her now / Her love is a rose, pale and dying / Dropping her petals in land unknown / All full of wine, the world before her / Was sober with no place to go / Mm, don't fool yourself / She was heartache from the moment that you met her / My heart is frozen still as I try to find the will to forget her somehow / She's somewhere out there now1993, “Forget Her”, performed by Jeff Buckley:
- Derived terms
- heartachy
- Related terms
- headache, heartaching