I saw a cute story over at St. Family. I commented that "It warmed the cockles of my heart". Then I started wondering... What the hell is a cockle?
A quick trip to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary gave me this.
Main Entry: cock·lePronunciation: 'kä-k&l
Function: noun
1 : any of several weedy plants of the pink family;
2 : any of various chiefly marine bivalve mollusks having a shell with convex radially ribbed valves;
3 : wavy or rounded like a shell
Okay, so now I am REALLY confused!!
The saying: Warm the cockles of my heart means: (again from Websters)
"the core of one's being"
How do we get from weedy plants to the core of me?
Anyone know how we got that saying? Anyone?
No clue, but I agree with you - not even close!
Umm.. maybe - wavy or rounded like a shell - to shell - to shell around my heart - and so: Warming the cockles of my heart: Warming the rounded shell-like hardness of my heart?
I'm pulling this out of my *** of course, but I've been know to convinse people of stranger things.
Learn something new every day! :)