heart-strings, n.
Pronunciation:/ˈhɑːtstrɪŋz/
Etymology: < heart n. + string n. in sense ‘sinew, tendon’.
With pl. concord.
1. In old notions of Anatomy, the tendons or nerves supposed to brace and sustain the heart.
2.1483 Cath. Angl. 177/1An Hartstringe, precordia.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 229/2Hartestrynges, ueines de cuevr.
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. xv. 272The head‥heart‥Liuer‥the Sinewes, Hartstrings, and Vaynes come from those parts.
1643 W. Prynne Romes Master-peece (1644) 34Stabbing [him] first in the mouth, next in the heart-strings.
1881 D. G. Rossetti Ballads & Sonn. (1882) 33Once she sprang as the heifer springs With the wolf's teeth at its red heart-strings.
a. transf. and fig.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 30To seek out gemmes‥we plucke the very heart-strings out of her [the earth].
1652 R. Saunders Balm 72The heart~strings of‥his‥arguments are cut.
1659 J. Rushworth Hist. Coll. 537The Priviledges of this House‥are the Heart~strings of the Commonwealth.
1896 Daily News 4 June 6/2The engineer‥holding in his firm grasp the heartstrings of the ship.
b. esp. The most intense feelings or emotions; the deepest affections; the heart.
1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene iv. vi. 29Her hart did leape and all her hart-strings tremble.
a1627 J. Fletcher & T. Middleton Nice Valour i. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ttt4/1,The falsest woman, That ever broke mans heart-strings.
1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. i. xii. 79A young Woman, whom he loved as tenderly as he did his Heartstrings.
1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. S. Afr. Introd. 3By his‥winning ways he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him.
c. Often with allusion to stringed instruments of music.
1602 2nd Pt. Returne fr. Parnassus v. i. 1982[A fiddler sings] How can he play whose heart stringes broken are?
1878 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David V. Ps. cxi. 2Our heart-strings are evermore getting out of tune.
1887 Lady M. Majendie Precautions III. ii. 47,I will play on your heart-strings as I used to do.
(from the Oxford English Dictionary)
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