Etymology

warm the cockles of someone's heart

warm the cock·les of some·one’s heart

Today it means: Especially of food or drink (particularly an alcoholic beverage): to cause someone to feel deeply warm and comfortable; to comfort, to satisfy. Full definition →

Latin cochleae
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcochleae“ventricles”
  2. English todaywarm the cockles of someone's heart

PIE word *ḱḗr Either from: * the similarity of a closed cockle (“European bivalve mollusk of the family Cardiidae”) to a heart; or * a corruption of Latin cochleae (“ventricles”) in cochleae cordis (“ventricles of the heart”). The term cockles of [someone’s] heart is first attested in 1671: see the quotation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.