In the new program of Europe 1, "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern looks at the roots of an expression or a phrase of everyday life.
Friday, he wonders where the expression "to have the heart on the hand" comes from.
>> It was on September 4th that Pope Francis canonized Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa. On the occasion of this anniversary, Stéphane Bern, who offers every day, in
Historically yours
with Matthieu Noël, to discover these expressions that we use every day without always knowing their origin, looks at the formula: "have the heart on the hand".
>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here
The heart has inspired many expressions.
You can have a pounding heart, you can have a heart of stone, a heart of gold, an artichoke heart, you can have a lot of heart, you can have a heart on the edge of your lips: but there, have the heart on the hand means: to be generous.
Strangely, until the end of the 18th century "to have your heart
in
your hand" meant to have nausea.
Quickly, one will have “the heart on the hand”, meaning that one is ready to give his most precious possession.
"Big heart" and "generous hand"
The heart speaks of love, symbolizes generosity, it is par excellence the organ of the strength of soul but, in a contradictory way, "to have the hand on the heart" can also mean to lie: "he told me that The hand on the heart".
Note that in Tunisia we find "having a big heart", as well as the expression "having a generous hand", but at no time does the heart come on the hand.
In Wales, instead of "having your heart on your hand", they say "having a clean heart" and in Spain "being better than bread".
Let's finish, once is not custom, with a quote from a rapper, Gringe, Orelsan's accomplice: "like the one to whom I open my heart and who will soon be keen to take it away from me, I will having to tell him that loving hurts like telling the truth.