idioms - Do 'learn by heart' & 'learn by rote' mean the same?


Here in India, both the phrases learning by heart and learning by rote are taken to have the same meaning, i.e., blind memorisation without true understanding.


However, some sources say that to learn something by heart implies that one knows something so well that it has been thoroughly internalised and imbibed.


So is it wrong to conflate the two?



Answer



No. They are not the same. In fact, they are not even related much. Sadly though, the expressions came to be used interchangeably and even Wikipedia has merged them into a single entry.


Learning by rote is about the technique or practice of memorizing. Learning by heart on the other hand, is the nature or quality of what has been learned.



The director told me to learn my speech by heart. I had to go over it many times before I learned it by heart. (TFD)



This clearly shows the difference. go over many times is the process of 'rote learning'; I learned it by heart is the effect it produced or the quality of learning that was acquired.



learn something by heart
Fig. to learn something so well that it can be written or recited without thinking; to memorize something.



Compare:



learn something by rote
Fig. to learn something by memorizing without giving any thought to what is being learned. I learned history by rote; then I couldn't pass the test that required me to think. If you learn things by rote, you'll never understand them.



Do you notice the without thinking part? It occurs in learning in case of 'rote learning', and in recollection in the case of 'by heart'!


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