Hearty

How to spell hearty

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hearty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hearty mean?

1. adjectiveWarm and sincere in feeling, or robust, vigorous, and generous in amount.

Hearty in a sentence

• The team gave the new manager a hearty welcome on her first day.

• After the long hike we sat down to a hearty bowl of stew.

Where does hearty come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is built straightforwardly from the native Old English noun heorte, meaning the physical heart but also the seat of courage, emotion, and vigour, plus the common adjective ending -y, which means 'full of' or 'characterised by'. By the late 1300s 'hearty' had emerged with the sense of warm, sincere, and coming from the heart, as in a hearty welcome. From there it broadened to mean robust and vigorous, describing a person in good health, and then stretched to food and appetite, where a hearty meal is large and nourishing. The heart was long believed to be the centre of feeling and bravery, which is why so many warmth and courage words still cluster around it, including 'hearten' and 'heartfelt'. The spelling trap is the silent, almost invisible 'a' tucked between the 'e' and the 'r', a relic of the older 'heorte' spelling that survives even though we no longer hear it clearly.

How the word is built

• heart (from Old English heorte)
• -y (adjective suffix forming 'full of, characterised by')