a. Having a true heart; faithful, loyal; honest, sincere.
1471. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., III. 30. Remembyr ho[w] keynd and true hartyd he hath ben to us to hys powre.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xcvii. 11. A ioyfull gladnesse for soch as be true herted.
1608. Chapman, Byron’s Consp., II. i. To be reputed a true harted subiect.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 21. His downright and true-hearted kindness to me.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xviii. IV. 196. The son of one of the bravest and most truehearted of Scottish patriots.
Hence True-heartedness.
1608. Hieron, Wks., I. 694. Encrease … loyalty and true-heartednesse in his subiects.
1858. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 222, note. The same nobleness of soul,… the same single-mindedness, the same true-heartedness, were always present [in Ary-Scheffer].
