It’s everywhere. You see it on sticky notes, in rapid-fire text messages, on cheap candy boxes, and tattooed on wrists. The symbol of a heart is arguably the most recognized icon on the planet, transcending language barriers more effectively than almost any word. But if you actually look at a human heart—the thumping, muscular pump currently pushing blood through your chest—it looks like a lumpy, reddish-purple fist. Not exactly the symmetrical, aesthetic curve we use to say "I love you."
So, how did we get here? Why do we use a shape that resembles a seed or a certain part of the lower anatomy to represent our deepest emotions?
Honestly, the history is a mess. It’s a mix of bad biology, ancient botany, and a bit of accidental branding that stuck for over two thousand years. People have been trying to pin down the "true" origin of the symbol of a heart for centuries, and while there isn't one single smoking gun, the theories are fascinatingly weird.
The Silphium Connection: Love or Ancient Contraception?
One of the most compelling, though debated, theories takes us back to the city-state of Cyrene in North Africa. Around the 7th century BC, Cyrene became incredibly wealthy by exporting a plant called silphium. It was a species of giant fennel that grew only in a narrow strip of land in modern-day Libya.
The Romans loved it. They used it as a seasoning, a medicine, and—most importantly—as a form of birth control. The seed of the silphium plant had a very specific shape. It was a perfect, symmetrical heart.
Because the plant was associated with sex and reproduction, some historians, like Pierre-Marie-Joseph Vernier, have suggested that the shape of the seed eventually became a visual shorthand for romantic feelings. If you were sending a "heart" back then, you weren't talking about your pulse; you were talking about what happened in the bedroom. The plant was so valuable that it was eventually harvested to extinction. It’s gone. But the shape? That lived on.
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Aristotle and the Three-Chambered Blunder
We can also blame the Greeks for the biological confusion. Aristotle, a guy who was right about a lot of things but spectacularly wrong about others, described the heart as a three-chambered organ with a rounded top and a pointed bottom. He also believed the heart, not the brain, was the seat of human intelligence and emotion.
When medieval illustrators tried to draw what the ancient "experts" described, they didn't have access to modern cadavers or Gray’s Anatomy. They were working off text. They drew what Aristotle described: a vessel with a dent in the top.
By the time the 14th century rolled around, this "pinecone" or "pear-shaped" heart started appearing in art. The Romance of the Alexander (written around 1340) contains one of the earliest known depictions of a person offering their heart to a lover. It looks a bit more like a radish than a modern emoji, but the evolution was starting. The symbol of a heart was shifting from a botanical seed or a botched medical diagram into a romantic icon.
The Church and the Sacred Heart
Religion gave the shape its final, permanent push into the mainstream. In the 17th century, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque had a series of visions of Jesus’s heart. She described it as surrounded by thorns and radiating light.
This image—the Sacred Heart—became a massive deal in the Catholic Church. It cemented the "scalloped" top and pointed bottom in the minds of millions of people. It turned a secular, somewhat niche symbol into a divine one. Once the Church adopts a symbol, it doesn't go away. It gets carved into wood, painted on glass, and printed in books.
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It’s Actually About Symmetry
There is a psychological reason why the symbol of a heart works so well, even if it's biologically inaccurate. Human beings are obsessed with symmetry.
A real heart is messy. It’s covered in fatty deposits and has weird tubes sticking out of the top. It’s asymmetrical. Our brains, however, find comfort in the "butterfly" symmetry of the heart icon. It mimics the curves of the human body—specifically the curves associated with attraction. Some evolutionary psychologists argue the shape resembles the buttocks or the breasts when viewed from certain angles. While that might sound a bit crass, it aligns with how humans have historically simplified complex biological attraction into basic geometry.
The I Heart NY Revolution
If you want to talk about the modern explosion of the heart, you have to talk about Milton Glaser. In 1977, New York City was a bit of a disaster. Crime was up, morale was down. The state commissioned a marketing campaign to boost tourism.
Glaser sat in the back of a yellow cab and scribbled "I [Heart] NY" on a torn envelope with a red crayon.
That was the turning point. It turned the heart from a noun into a verb. It became a way to express "love" or "like" without having to say the word. It paved the way for the "like" buttons of the 21st century. Today, we don't even think about the fact that we are clicking a stylized internal organ to show we enjoyed a photo of someone’s sourdough bread.
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Cultural Nuance: Not All Hearts Are Equal
Interestingly, the meaning can shift depending on where you are. In some African cultures, the heart is less about romantic love and more about "patience" or "endurance." In the Adinkra symbols of Ghana, the Sankofa is often depicted as a stylized heart, but it means "to go back and get it"—referring to the importance of learning from the past.
Even in the world of emojis, the color matters.
- A red heart is classic romantic love.
- A yellow heart is for friendship.
- A blue heart often represents trust or "bro" love.
- The black heart? Usually reserved for dark humor or a "cold" mood.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that the symbol was meant to be a heart. It wasn't. It was an evolution of many things—ivy leaves, silphium seeds, and bad anatomical sketches—that eventually merged into a singular idea.
It’s also a mistake to think the heart symbol is ancient in its current form. The "v-shaped" bottom and the deep "m-shaped" top didn't really become the standardized version until the late Middle Ages. Before that, it was often depicted upside down or looking like a literal pinecone.
Actionable Insights: Using the Heart Symbol Effectively
If you’re using the heart in design, branding, or even just communication, keep these specific things in mind:
- Watch the Context: In professional settings, a heart can still be misinterpreted. Stick to "likes" on social platforms, but avoid it in formal emails unless you have a very close relationship with the recipient.
- Symmetry is Key: If you’re designing a logo, remember that the human eye detects even slight imbalances in a heart shape. It is one of the few shapes where perfection is expected.
- Color Matters: Never underestimate the cultural weight of color. A red heart on a "Get Well Soon" card is fine; a red heart on a business proposal might be weird.
- Don't Overuse It: Like any powerful tool, it loses its punch if it's everywhere. Save the heart for moments of genuine connection.
The symbol of a heart has traveled from ancient African fennel fields to the digital keyboards in our pockets. It has survived bad science, religious shifts, and the rise of the internet. It’s the ultimate example of how humans can take a simple, inaccurate shape and imbue it with more meaning than the actual organ it's supposed to represent.
To really master the use of this icon, start paying attention to the "weight" of the curves in the designs you see. A "fat" heart feels friendly and cute; a "tall, thin" heart feels elegant and sophisticated. Choose the version that matches the emotion you’re actually trying to send.