mascot
- an animal, person, or thing adopted by a group as its representative symbol and supposed to bring good luck: The U.S. Navy mascot is a goat.
Origin of mascot
Examples from the Web for mascot
Contemporary Examples
The support of a mascot has confused Christianity and sports.
Sherman Alexie on His New Film, the Redskins, and Why It's OK to Laugh at His WorkWilliam O’Connor
August 22, 2014
Joe Camel: For about a decade beginning in 1987, Camel started to market its products using a mascot called “Old Joe.”
What if a Serb mortar team carried a little ginger cat as their mascot?
The fact is, the mascot may be the quiet kid sitting next to you in class with his head down.
I ended up starting a sub shop called the Cheba Hut “Toasted” Subs, and the camper van is our mascot.
Historical Examples
"Hello yourself and see how you like it," the mascot of the Ravens called down.
Pee-wee HarrisPercy Keese Fitzhugh
Ain't he our mascot, and didn't they strike on good after we'd struck him?
"Captains Courageous"Rudyard Kipling
He called for his mascot, and the bear at once appeared and he mounted its back.
A Treasury of Eskimo TalesClara Kern Bayliss
"Lu-Lu" and "Mascot" were neck and neck, getting in splendid work.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901Lucy Maud Montgomery
It didn't matter a pin to her whether "Lu-Lu" or "Mascot" won.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901Lucy Maud Montgomery
mascot
- a person, animal, or thing considered to bring good luck
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for mascot
n.
"talisman, charm," 1881, from provincial French mascotte "sorcerer's charm, 'faerie friend,' good luck piece" (19c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from or related to Provençal mascoto "sorcery, fetish" (cf. Narbonnese manuscript, 1233, mascotto "procuress, enchantment, bewitchment in gambling"), from masco "witch," from Old Provençal masca, itself of unknown origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin masca "mask, specter, nightmare" (see mask (n.)). Popularized by French composer Edmond Audran's 1880 comic operetta "La Mascotte," about a household "fairy" who gives luck to an Italian peasant, performed in a toned-down translation in England from fall 1881.