Plural of heartbreak; intense feelings of sadness and emotional pain, especially from romantic rejection or loss.
Combines 'heart' (Old English 'heorte') with 'break' (Old English 'brecan,' to fracture). The metaphor of breaking one's heart emerged in Middle English literature to describe overwhelming emotional anguish.
Pop music, literature, and poetry are obsessed with heartbreak, making it one of our most explored emotions in art—yet this is relatively recent; medieval writers focused more on spiritual suffering than romantic heartbreak.
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