FromMiddle Englishwacche word,wacchworde, morphologically aswatch(“guard, sentinel, sentry”) +word.
watchword (pluralwatchwords)
- Aword used as amotto, asexpressive of aprinciple,belief, orrule of action; arallying cry.
- Synonyms:catchword,byword,maxim,mantra,motto
1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, inFrancesca Carrara. […], volume I, London:Richard Bentley, […], (successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,page321:"How this perpetual gaiety," exclaimed Louis, "jars upon the ear! Good Heaven! is farewell to be said so gladly? I sometimes start when I think upon the hollowness of all that surrounds me. I often wish my eye had the power of searching the inmost depths of the bosoms whosewatchword is my name."
1871, “Forward! Be Our Watchword”,Henry Alford (lyrics), Henry Thomas Smart (music)[1]:For-ward! be ourwatchword, Steps and voices joined; / Seek the things before us, Not a look behind.
1919,Boris Sidis,The Source and Aim of Human Progress[2]:Atrocities of the most vicious kind were justified by thewatchwords: "This is war!" "Might is Right." "Necessity knows no law."
1945 May,Harry S. Truman,Announcement of Germany's Surrender[3]:We can repay the debt which we owe to our God, to our dead, and to our children only by work — by ceaseless devotion to the responsibilities which lie ahead of us. If I could give you a singlewatchword for the coming months, that word is: work, work, and more work.
1994,Tori Amos, “Cornflake Girl”, inUnder the Pink:It's a peel out thewatchword / Just peel out thewatchword
2019 October, James Abbott, “Esk Valley revival”, inModern Railways, page76:The Esk Valley route to Whitby was a classic example: a basic four trains a day service has persisted for decades, with economy thewatchword.
- (military, security) Aprearrangedreply to thechallenge of asentry or aguard; apassword orsignal by which friends can be known from enemies.
- Synonyms:passphrase,password,underword
1625,George Sandys,Sacrae heptades:a Watchword sufficient for him that is wiſe
word used as expressive of a principle
- Bulgarian:ло́зунг (bg) m(lózung)
- Czech:heslo (cs) n,motto (cs) n,hlavní zásada
- Esperanto:(pleaseverify)devizo
- Finnish:motto (fi),tunnus (fi),iskulause (fi)
- French:mot d'ordre (fr) m
- German:Motto (de) n,Schlagwort (de) n,Parole (de) f
- Greek:σύνθημα (el) n(sýnthima)
- Hebrew:אִמְרַת כָּנָף (he) f(imrát kanáf)
- Polish:hasło (pl) n,zawołanie n(history, heraldry)
- Russian:ло́зунг (ru) m(lózung),клич (ru) m(klič)
- Spanish:lema (es) m,consigna (es) f
- Swedish:ledord (sv) n,lösen (sv) c,motto (sv) n,slagord (sv) n,valspråk (sv) n,slogan (sv) c,stridsrop (sv) n
|
a prearranged reply to the challenge of a sentry or a guard
- “watchword”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “watchword”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
