Do you love them with all your heart? Do you wonder why you feel this with all your heart? Our expression of love and sorrow emerges from the deepest parts of our mind and body but where does the use of our organs as the source of this feeling originate from? To understand human anatomy and behaviours, physicians have been dissecting and examining organs for thousands of years. These observations have been linked to behaviours exhibited by humankind. Due to its position in the body as well as many ancient beliefs surrounding it, the heart was considered to be the centre of human emotion. These ideas have permeated through our language, keeping the symbol of the heart alive in stories of love, passion, and loss. However, despite what literature and popular culture have shown us, the heart is not universally recognised as the centre of love in all languages and cultures.

The liver has always been an important organ in understanding bodily functions and human behaviours all over the world; the Ancient Egyptians believed the liver was so important that it was preserved in its own canopic jar and in the West, Hippocrates' popularised theory of four humours indicated that bile (produced by the liver) led to “melancholic” behaviours, acting as the seat of emotion. Though these spiritual practices and theories are no longer exercised, language has evolved in a way that has preserved these ancient traditions even in our modern environments. This can be seen in Indonesia, where over 700 different languages are spoken across 17,505 islands, making it the second most linguistically diverse country in the world. These languages are significantly tied to the cultures and traditions practised on the islands over thousands of years and their term for liver, hati, is a beautiful example of the connection between tradition, language, and human emotion. 

Poppy Siahaan from the University of Cologne, is one of the few researchers to take a deep dive into the linguistic origins and uses of the concept of ‘love’. Indonesian liver divination was important in the communication between humans and their gods. With this connection, people believed that inspection of the liver would predict the future and allow humans to gain a better understanding of each other. The liver was the centre of vitality and the practice of divination allowed them to better understand human life. The Indonesian word hati is best translated into English as heart; however, the word itself literally means liver. When a person has cardiovascular disease, in Indonesian one would say, ‘sakit jantung’, translating literally to ill or broken heart. The same does not apply to hati however. To say ‘sakit hati’ would not imply any medical malady but refers to the metaphorical, human feeling of broken-heartedness. The medical term for ‘liver disease’ would use the Dutch word lever, a language frequently borrowed from due to its colonial history in Indonesia.

To have a ‘sakit hati’ not only implies heartbreak but also resentment, ill-will, and the feeling of deception. In a positive sense, ‘jatuh hati’ is a phrase used in poetry or songwriting, literally translated to ‘falling in heart’, but this meaning is lost in English and is better said as ‘falling in love’. Another interesting conceptual use of hati is in the term ‘to be careful’ translated as hati-hati. This repetition of the word is usually found in the plural form of nouns but here, it suggests the intention behind wishing someone “care” or to ensure they look after themselves; a sentiment that derives from an integral part of the human body. Such examples clearly indicate the conceptual use of the word for liver in Indonesian as the seat of various human emotions and its age-old cultural significance. So the next time you tell someone you love them, let it be known it’s not just with your heart but with your liver too!