Crossword Dictionary
HARDHEARTED
hardhearted, heartless - a
lacking in feeling or pity or warmth
Synonyms
affectless, callous, case-hardened, cold-blooded, compassionless, desensitized
Examples
You would have to be pretty hard-hearted not to feel something for him.
Nobody except a hard-hearted, narrow-minded politician would laugh.
Another case of hard-hearted capitalists pushing aside the less fortunate to enhance their investments?
Etymology
also hardhearted, "obdurate, unfeeling," c. 1200, heard-iheorted," from hard (adj.) + -hearted. Sometimes in Middle English also meaning "bold, courageous" (c. 1400). Related: Hard-heartedly; hard-heartedness. In late Old English and early Middle English, hard-heort meant both "hard-hearted" (adj.) and "hard-hearted person" (n.).
hard (adj.)
Old English heard "solid and firm, not soft," also, "difficult to endure, carried on with great exertion," also, of persons, "severe, rigorous, harsh, cruel," from Proto-Germanic *hardu- (source also of Old Saxon hard, Old Frisian herd, Dutch hard, Old Norse harðr "hard," Old High German harto "extremely, very," German hart, Gothic hardus "hard"), from PIE *kortu-, suffixed form of root *kar- "hard."
-hearted
figurative element in combinations, "at heart," also "having a heart" (of a specified kind), c. 1200, first attested in hard-hearted; see heart (n.). Related: -heartedly.