Would you like to let someone know that you are thinking of them, especially when there is an increased distance between one person and the next? The common saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is an expression that can be used to mean just this. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this common, almost ancient phrase.
Meaning
The saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is a common proverbial saying that is often repeated in its entiriety.
The whole phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is used to mean that distance can make people like one another more.
The saying is most often used to refer to longing or missing someone.
The phrase can be said in direct reference to someone, or might also be used as a third-party reference to someone.
The phrase can also imply the meaning in conversation. In this case, the phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is used as a general reference towards the speaker.
The phrase is also used to imply that people will be more fond of one another after a long period of separation.
The saying is almost never used in the plural form, as 'the heart' is used as a singular concept that makes up part of the saying.
Example Usage
“We hadn't seen one another for about a period of three weeks, and then we arranged a great picnic somewhere on a mountain. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“I know that he's been in jail for assault for the past five years, but you know what people say. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“If you don't know what you're going to do until you see him again, just remember that absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“If it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, why did my wife divoce me after I came back from the work trip?”
Origin
The origin of the phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is agreed bny most online language resources to be from a famous Roman poem.
The phrase is likely to have entered the English language through a translation, which is likely to have appeared somewhere in the 1600s (or at least spread this way through the introduction of easier means to print and distribute written material).
The phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' stuck around, and entered online use early through its use on message boards.
Later use as a humorous phrase for image macros would bring back the phrase, and it has become a common pop culture reference that has remained unchanged since its original meaning.
Modern use of the phrase in its completeness as a proverbial saying persists.
Phrases Similar to Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
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Phrases Opposite to Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
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What is the Correct Saying?
- Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Ways People May Say Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Incorrectly
There are several ways in which someone might use or understand the phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' in the wrong way(s).
The phrase is never used as 'hearts grow fonder', and the phrase always uses 'heart' in single form even though it refers to more than one person.
The phrase might have no equivalent in some other languages, and make no sense with its direct translation.
Acceptable Ways to Phrase Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
The phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is one that is most commonly used to say that one person might miss another, or to imply that two people will like (or love) one another more after a long period of not seeing eachother.
The phrase is most often used as a complete saying, to mean that 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' – and the phrase is almost never abbreviated.