Intense emotional pain and distress caused by loss, rejection, or disappointment in love. It can manifest as physical sensations in the chest and profoundly affect one's ability to function normally.
Compound of 'heart' (Old English 'heorte') and 'break' (Old English 'brecan'). The metaphor of a broken heart appears across cultures, reflecting the universal experience of emotional pain feeling physically real.
Heartbreak literally hurts—brain scans show that emotional pain activates the same neural pathways as physical injury. This is why we use words like 'crushing' and 'stabbing' to describe emotional pain; our brains process them similarly.
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