Hello,
A brief etymology of the word 'heart', and its possible connection with the cultural reality of the Indo-European people :
So, contemporary English 'heart' (German: 'Herz', Swedish 'hjärta', Icelandic 'hjarta', Dutch 'hart') comes from Proto-Germanic root '*hertan-'.
'*hertan-' ultimately draws its roots from Proto-Indo-European *kerd or *k'rd, with possible meaning of 'heart' or 'middle' I guess. You can also find that same root in the Greek 'kardía', Latin 'cor', both of which make a significant part in heart-connected terminology (cardiology, cardio-, cordial, courage, accord etc.).
The more interesting part comes to play when we take a look at how the Slavic languages adopted the *kerd, *k'rd root. It is reconstructed as *sьrdьce in Old Slavic, and gave 'srce', 'serdce', 'serce' etc., all, of course, meaning 'heart', but there is also a close connection between 'sred' (the middle) and *sьrdьce, pointing to an interesting possible connection of the heart and the middle, presenting the heart as a central entity in a mortal human life and thus giving us the idea of respecting the heart and its role in humans.
I also noticed that, already back in the Proto-Indo-European the roots *kerd and *ker (meaning fire) were really close. *ker gives us 'carbo' in Latin, 'kur(i)ti in Slavic, as well as' heorð' in Germanic, which ultimately accounts for' hearth' in English, presenting us thus a close connection between the heart and the flame, ie. the understanding that as long as heart is beating there is life.
Written by @tinmar
@steemagazin team: @atimk23, @sulepower, @kalu24, @kekec, @strictlybusiness, @tinmar