Feeling very sad, sorrowful, or melancholy; burdened by deep sadness or grief.
Compound of 'heavy' (Old English 'hefig') and 'hearted' (Old English 'heorte'). The metaphor of emotional weight dates to Middle English, where physical heaviness became associated with emotional burden around the 14th century.
This word reveals how our language treats emotions as physical things—we 'carry' grief, feel 'weighed down' by sadness, or have a 'heavy heart.' Shakespeare used similar metaphors constantly, showing that humans have always understood big feelings through the body.
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