In the Russian language, in addition to a huge number of synonyms with different emotional colors, there are many phraseological units that confuse not only foreigners, but also Russian speakers themselves. One of these phraseologisms can be considered the notorious expression "the heart has gone to the heels", which, if you do not know for sure, can easily be misunderstood. However, for those who seriously decided to understand its meaning, a beautiful and unusual phrase will only benefit, diversify and enrich speech.
Phraseologism "the heart went to the heels": meaning
This expression is used to describe intense fear, amazement, discouragement. Most often, this is precisely an unpleasant sensation caused by something unexpected, negative, and perhaps even dangerous. The heart can go to the heels of someone who heard bad news, found himself in an awkward or embarrassing situation, was rejected, lost something that was important to him.
In a more optimistic, positive sense, this phraseological unit is much less common. However, such examples still exist. The heart can "in a good way" go to the heels of someone who is confused when meeting with a deara person, experienced excitement in anticipation of a pleasant event, heard inspiring and disturbing news.
Synonyms of phraseologism "my heart went to my heels"
The Russian language is known to be rich in synonyms. The dictionaries of synonyms also did not bypass this expression, endowing it with a huge number of analogues that are unusual from a lexical point of view. Here are some of them:
- Frost passed through the skin.
- The soul went to the heels.
- The blood is frozen/frozen in the veins.
- Heart broke.
- Goosebumps ran/crawled.
- The hamstrings shook.
- Hair stood on end.
The closest synonym, of course, is the expression "the soul went to the heels", which, by the way, is used much more often. However, this does not negate the fact that the phrase "my heart went to my heels" enriches the Russian language and brings zest to the speech of a person or character.
Origin of phraseologism
The exact answer to the question of why, in the end, the heart goes exactly to the heels, no one can give. There are several theories. All of them are extremely entertaining and have a logical rationale:
- With a strong fright, there is a so-called sensation of falling insides. Scientists believe that this is due to the relaxation of the abdominal cavity.
- Sometimes with strong excitement, the rapid beating of one's own heart can be felt even in the heels. No one gives accurate information about how realistic this is from a scientific point of view. Howeversome people take the liberty of claiming to have personally experienced this.
- Physical and emotional shocks are perceived by one part of the central nervous system of a person, therefore they can influence each other. Perhaps this explains the huge number of phraseological units associated with the heart: "blood is shed", "jumps out of the chest", "goes into the heels".
- Fear breeds the desire to run away, which is felt in the heels.
- The following theory may seem far-fetched, but still has the right to exist. In Chinese mythology, from which, by the way, many Russian winged expressions were borrowed, fear is associated with the water element, and water tends to flow down, "to the heels".
Analogues from other languages
In some cases, foreign counterparts seem even stranger than the original Russian expressions. For example:
| In English |
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| In German | Das Herz ist (ihm) in die Hose gefallen! | His heart fell into his pants! |
| In French | Il une peur bleue! | His fear is blue! / He is afraid of the color blue! |
| In Spanish | Quedarse más muerto que vivo! | Someone is more dead than alive! |
Which of these expressions is weirder and funnier than the others is a matter of taste. However, the fact remains: the phraseologism "the heart went to the heels" is beautiful and bright, since it has so many unusual analogues.
