Where did this saying come from?

Question

Where did the saying "cross my heart, hope to die" come from? What does crossing your heart and hoping to die have to do with keeping promises?

Answer 1

Excerpt from: http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/9452.htm

I don't know about you, but I know what I used to say when I was a kid. I'd say something like this, "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye."


Now where do kids get that idea? Where did that statement come from? Well, if you study the statement you'll discover it comes from the Middle Ages where oaths were quite common and a very common form of the oath was the self-curse; and a very common self-curse that people take upon themselves was what? "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." What does it mean? What does it convey by way of meaning. Simple: "Cross my heart" means cut my heart into four pieces. "Stick a needle in my eye," means, "If I am lying, may God be my judge and may he take away my life and cut my heart into four pieces and gouge out my eyes with needles." You're calling a curse upon yourself. That's the strongest form of oath possible, the self-curse.

Answer 2

cross my heart and hope to die
Attest to the truth of something; solemnly assure someone that the truth has been spoken. For example, I did lock the door--cross my heart and hope to die! This phrase most likely originated as a religious oath based on the sign of the cross; it is generally accompanied by hand gestures such as crossing one's hands over one's breast and then pointing the right hand skyward (a variant is cross my heart and point to God). Today most often uttered by children, it was first recorded in 1908.

Answer 3

CROSS ONE'S HEART - "The most binding oath of childhood; solemn assurance of truthfulness, usually accompanied by motions of the right hand forming a cross over the general vicinity of the testator's heart. Probably the gesture and its binding nature were originally based upon the familiar Catholic sign of the cross. In my own Protestant childhood in Ohio, and my wife says the same was the case in Massachusetts, the oath was often accompanied by the irreverent doggerel: 'Cross your heart and hope to die, And hope the cat'll spit in your eye." From "2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings & Expressions from White Elephants to a Song and Dance" by Charles Earle Funk (Galahad Book, New York, 1993).