Causing deep emotional pain or distress; deeply hurtful to one's feelings.
From 'heart' + 'wounding' (present participle of 'wound,' from Old English 'wundian'). Describes something that wounds the heart emotionally rather than physically.
This poetic adjective appears often in Renaissance literature and romantic poetry, where emotional damage was described using the language of physical violence—a 'heartwounding' betrayal hits as hard as a sword. Shakespeare used this kind of heart-wound imagery constantly.
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