<3 is in the air--or in NYT presses

[Victor Steinbok]

The story was also picked up by Editor&Publisher.

http://goo.gl/Tq22u
New York Times Uses Heart in Headline, Does Not Break The Presses. By
Kat Stoeffel
January 7, 2011 | 7:01 p.m
> Today brings another groundbreaking development: a heart. (♥) Although
> our money was on the Style section, the heart made its appearance in
> Education Life, in the headline "A L♥ng-Distance Affair."

This has greater implications about typography than about language. But
it is interesting /where/ the heart character occurred. The story is here

http://goo.gl/lAHmf

The use of "heart" in text has been discussed on ADS-L in my memory, so
that was less than 2 years ago. But the connection was "I <3 NY" and
similar expressions, not "L♥ng-Distance Affair" or even "L♥ve". I meant
to post an observation on this earlier, but was hesitant because the
topic /had/ come up before. One interesting thing about it is that "I ♥
NY" (and similar expressions) has evolved into not just txt "I <3 NY",
but into "I [heart] NY", and, finally, into "I heart NY", dropping the
symbol-signifying brackets.

Although "heart" as a verb is long attested, it never--in its past
incarnation--meant "love". Nor was there any hidden semiotics behind it.
OED obviously does not have this new meaning of "heart" yet.

Here's just one example--Wiki has an entry "I Heart Huckabees":

> /I ♥ Huckabees/ (known usually as /I Heart Huckabees/ but also as /I
> Love Huckabees/) is a 2004 philosophical comedy film from Fox Searchlight.

Note that both versions of the title are referenced in Wiki (from film
reviews).

VS-)

VS-)

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