the.com/cockle
a heart-shaped clam that digs with a muscular foot and warms idioms about your soul
means A small, edible, heart-shaped saltwater clam with a ridged, ribbed shell, often gathered from sandy shores.
from From Old French 'coquille,' meaning shell, which traces back through Latin to Greek 'konchylion,' a little mussel or shellfish — a diminutive of 'konkhe,' the same conch-shell root that washes up in many sea-word kin. The cozy phrase 'the cockles of your heart' likely leans on the shell's heart-like shape, though some suspect a learned echo of Latin 'cochleae cordis,' the chambers of the heart; the link is plausible but unproven.
- shape
- Ribbed shell looks like a tiny valentine
- jumping foot
- Flips and leaps to escape predators
- warm phrase
- Cockles of the heart name this mollusk
- longevity
- Some species live over a decade buried
- old trade
- Welsh cockle pickers worked tidal flats for centuries
heart cockle — bivalve mollusk found in shallow waters worldwide, shell shaped like a heart
bloody cockle — edible species (anadara granosa) harvested in southeast asia, particularly thailand and malaysia
english cockle — cerastoderma edule commercially harvested in morecambe bay, lancashire since medieval times