Heart is one of those words that can be a little tricky to spell for kids, with hart being a common replacement. It makes sense if you think about it, especially for kids who know how to spell car or other /ar/ words because heart has that same /ar/ sound.
Did you know that hart is a real word, though? According to Etymonline, hart comes from the Old English word heorot and refers to a grown male deer, or stag. (A female is called a hind.) When I was explaining the difference to a student, I wondered whether the e had been added to differentiate between the two words, but a quick search showed me that heart and hart have different origins. Heart is also from Old English, spelled heorte, so the words originally had similar spellings.
A couple of interesting notes about hart:
According to Etymonline, the name of the town Hertford means ‘a ford frequented by harts.’
In the story Beowulf, the main hall is called Heorot, which is usually translated as Hart or Stag. (1)
While it’s not a commonly used word anymore, it’s worth it to be familiar with.
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