Kind, generous, and sympathetic in character; having compassion for others.
Compound of 'broad' + 'hearted' (from Old English heorte, meaning the center of emotion and thought). Emerged in English literature around the 16th century as a poetic way to describe generous-spirited individuals, paralleling 'warmhearted' and 'softhearted.'
This word captures something linguists call 'metaphorical heart expansion'—nearly every language describes generous people as having 'big' or 'wide' hearts. It's like our brains instinctively use size as a metaphor for emotional capacity.
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