The Etymology of Cockle
Cockle has the unusual fate of sharing its English form with two unrelated etymologies. The cockle of seaside fame — the small ridged bivalve mollusc — descends from Greek konkhe (shell, mussel) via Latin conchylium and Old French coquille, entering English in the late 1300s. The same Greek root gives us conch, conchology (the study of shells), and indeed Conchita. But the warm cockles of the heart in the affectionate idiom are probably not the same word at all: most etymologists trace them to Latin cochleae cordis, the small chambers of the heart, from cochlea (snail), so named because of their spiral shape. The phrase is recorded from 1671. By the time English speakers were using it, the two words sounded identical, and few people noticed the deeper distinction. Cockle as a verb (to wrinkle or pucker) is a third meaning, possibly from French coquiller (to curl up like a shell).