Wing IV · Semantic lineage
courage
Oldest known meaning — the heart as the seat of feeling and inner disposition.
heart → innermost feeling → spirit → bravery
Excavation timeline
How the meaning shifted
Etymological strata
Layers of descent
- corLatin · classical
Latin — heart; seat of emotion and thought
- corageOld French · c. 1300
Old French — heart, innermost feelings, temperament
- corageMiddle English · c. 1300
Middle English — spirit, disposition, what is in one's heart
- courageModern English · by 1500s
English — bravery; the quality of facing danger
Constellation
Descendants & cognates
Inner ring — modern descendants of the same root. Outer ring — cognates in sister languages. Gold descendants link to their specimen.
Semantic drift
How the sense moved
To 'take courage' once meant, almost literally, to take heart. The word narrowed from the whole inner life — all that the heart holds — down to one of its capacities: the willingness to face fear. The older breadth survives whenever we 'speak from the heart' or do something 'wholeheartedly'.
Metaphorical expansion
Where the word reaches now
Cultural sediment
The worldview inside the word
Courage carries the ancient anatomy of feeling, when the heart — not the brain — was the organ of will and emotion.
Related descendants
Words from the same root
Sources
Confidence & citations
Lineage confidence · Well attested
- · Online Etymology Dictionary
- · OED, s.v. courage