mascot

noun

mas·​cot ˈma-ˌskät How to pronounce mascot (audio)
 also  -skət
: a person, animal, or object adopted by a group as a symbolic figure especially to bring them good luck
the team had a mountain lion as their mascot

Examples of mascot in a Sentence

The team had a mountain lion as their mascot. she wears a mascot made of ebony and silver on a chain around her neck
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The Pelicans’ horrifying alternate mascot is here to commemorate Marti Gras through Feb. 25. Steven Louis Goldstein, The Athletic, 20 Jan. 2025 The filing also states that earlier in the evening, McGregor had twice punched the Miami Heat mascot during halftime in an apparent stunt to promote a pain relief spray. Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2025 Despite the mascots’ relationship status in question, those in the comments on Monday’s IG post fully endorsed the possible-couple. Anna Lazarus Caplan, People.com, 14 Jan. 2025 The species’s presence in the U.K. dates back at least two hundred and fifty thousand years, and has inspired whimsical reverence—badgers appear across children’s literature and cartoons, on holiday ornaments, and as beloved mascots—and extreme loathing. Anna Russell, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for mascot 

Word History

Etymology

French mascotte, from Occitan mascoto, from masco witch, from Medieval Latin masca

First Known Use

1881, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of mascot was in 1881

Dictionary Entries Near mascot

Cite this Entry

“Mascot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mascot. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.

Kids Definition

mascot

noun
mas·​cot ˈmas-ˌkät How to pronounce mascot (audio)
 also  -kət
: a person, animal, or object supposed to bring good luck
Etymology

from French mascotte "mascot," from a Romance word mascoto "charm," literally "little witch," from masco "witch," from Latin masca "witch"

Word Origin
The word mascot is an example of words that come to have a more pleasant meaning as they develop through the years and through many languages. The ancestor of mascot is the Latin word masca, used in the Middle Ages to mean "witch." Masca passed into the Romance speech of southern France as masco. Later it developed a derivative mascoto, literally meaning "little witch" but actually used to mean "charm" or "magic spell." A magic spell can be used for good as well as bad. Already, then, we have the beginnings of a change to a nicer idea in the basic use of the word. The word mascoto came to be mascotte in modern French, meaning a "good luck charm." It was made popular by the operetta La Mascotte in 1880. In this operetta "la mascotte" is the lovely young woman Bettina, whose influence brings victories to the army of the prince of Pisa. English later borrowed the word as mascot, with the meaning "a person or thing thought to bring good luck." Today the word is often used to refer to an animal chosen by a school or college as a good luck symbol for its sports teams.

More from Merriam-Webster on mascot

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