Wearing one's heart/feelings on one's shoulder

Question

The first few times I heard someone say that they wear their heart (or feelings) on their shoulder, I merely assumed that they meant "on their sleeve" and had misspoken. But after a bit of googling I am now wondering if there are not some places in the US where people habitually use the expression "to wear one's heart/feelings on one's shoulder."

I expect that this expression is the result of confusing two different idioms. The person I heard use it is a college-educated professional from the Jacksonville FL area. According to rational-madness.blogspot.com/2006/07, Miss USA 2006 also used this expression:

At the recent Miss Universe pageant, when asked about her weakness, Miss USA answers, "I wear my heart on my shoulder... that keeps me humble."

I believe Miss USA 2006 was born in Dallas, TX, and lived most of her life up to the pageant in Russel Springs, KY, so perhaps this saying has some currency in the south.

In many of the examples I found on the Web, it seems to refer to having a tattoo of a heart on the shoulder, so context is also important. But apparently there are people who speak this way.

Can anyone confirm that this is the case, or is it really just a matter of a small number of people who habitually misspeak?

TIA

Answer 1

To "wear your heart on your sleeve" and also "green sleeves" were derived from (by folklore) Irish country lads asking a girl out on a picnic on a Sunday afternoon. If either the girl or the boy returned with grass stains on their sleeves it was assumed that they were "lovers" (that is, that they were kissing each other). So it was said that they "wore their hearts on their sleeves" (or they had "green sleeves"--which is a title for a traditional English song).

Wiki gives a less wholesome reading on "greensleeves" that I don't subscribe to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensleeves

A possible interpretation of the lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman, perhaps even a prostitute.[7] At the time, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the grass stains on a woman's dress from engaging in sexual intercourse outdoors.[8] An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves was, through her costume, incorrectly assumed to be sexually promiscuous. Her "discourteous" rejection of the singer's advances supports the contention that she is not.[8]

I agree with others who suggested that this is a mixed metaphor.

Answer 2

on one's shoulders TFD an idiom ~1300

• As one's responsibility.

This metaphoric use of shoulders as the burden-bearing part of the body dates from the late 1300s.

and

*on someone's shoulders TFD an idiom

Fig. on someone's own self. (*Typically: be ~; carry something ~; fall ~; have something ~; leave something ~; put something ~.)

As in:

At the recent Miss Universe pageant, when asked about her weakness, Miss USA answers, "I wear my heart on my shoulder, [bears responsibility for her own heart] that keeps me humble."

Heart on one's sleeve: it is easily seen by others. To bear the burden on one's own heart means to keep a clean, morally healthy and an optomistic heart is dependent on her, she cannot always do it successfully and it is a burden