It Warms My Cockles

funny word of the day: cockle

Definition from Merriam-Webster:

¹cock·le

Pronunciation: \ˈkä-kəl\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English coccel

Date: before 12th century

: any of several weedy plants of the pink family; especially : corn cockle

²cockle

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English cokille, from Middle French coquille shell, modification of Latin conchylia, plural of conchylium, from Greek konchylion, from konchē conch

Date: 14th century

1 : any of various chiefly marine bivalve mollusks (family Cardiidae) having a shell with convex radially ribbed valves; especially : a common edible European bivalve (Cerastoderma edule syn. Cardium edule)
2 : cockleshell

³cockle

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English kokell, ultimately from Middle French coquillé wavy or rounded like a shell, from coquille

Date: 15th century

: pucker, wrinkle

— cockle verb

Growing up I always heard the below phrase and had no idea what it meant. Now I do -- and it just warms the cockles of my heart!

cockles of the heart

Etymology: perhaps from ²cockle

Date: 1671

: the core of one's being —usually used in the phrase warm the cockles of the heart