hertā (Proto-West Germanic)
Where does "hertā" come from?
The Proto West Germanic noun 'hertā' meaning 'heart' descends directly from the Proto Germanic 'hertô'. This term traces back further to the Proto Indo European root 'ḱerd-', which also signifies 'heart'. Through this linguistic progression, the word was reanalyzed as a neuter an-stem, anchoring one of the most fundamental concepts of human anatomy in ancient ancestral roots.
Full etymology tree
- *hertā (Proto-West Germanic), 'heart'
- inherited *hertô (Proto-Germanic), 'heart'
- derived *ḱérd (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *hertô (Proto-Germanic), 'heart'
Ancestors
- *hertô (Proto-Germanic)
Descendants and derived words
- herta (Old Dutch)
- heorte (Old English)
- herte (Old Frisian)
- herta (Old Saxon)
- *hirtijan (Proto-West Germanic)
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris