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The meaning and origin of the expression: Stony-hearted

Stony-hearted

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What's the meaning of the phrase 'Stony hearted'?

Cruel and unfeeling.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Stony hearted'?

The phrase is first recorded in 1569, in Thomas Underdown's translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus:

" There is no man so stoany harted, but he shal be made to yeelde with our flatteringe allurmentes."

The meaning and origin of the phrase 'Stony hearted'Shakespeare picked it up and used it in Henry IV Part I , 1597

FALSTAFF
I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two and twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins! Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough: a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!

Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.

By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

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