watchword

From Middle English wacche word, wacchworde, morphologically as watch (“guard, sentinel, sentry”) +‎ word.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɒt͡ʃwɜː(ɹ)d/

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watchword (plural watchwords)

1. A word used as a motto, as expressive of a principle, belief, or rule of action; a rallying cry.

   Synonyms: catchword, byword, maxim, mantra, motto

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 321:

     "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 whose watchword is my name."

   • 1871, “Forward! Be Our Watchword”, Henry Alford (lyrics), Henry Thomas Smart (music)‎:

     For-ward! be our watchword, Steps and voices joined; / Seek the things before us, Not a look behind.

   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress‎:

     Atrocities of the most vicious kind were justified by the watchwords: "This is war!" "Might is Right." "Necessity knows no law."

   • 1945 May, Harry S. Truman, Announcement of Germany's Surrender‎:

     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 single watchword for the coming months, that word is: work, work, and more work.

   • 1994, Tori Amos (lyrics and music), “Cornflake Girl”, in Under the Pink:

     It's a peel out the watchword / Just peel out the watchword

   • 2019 October, James Abbott, “Esk Valley revival”, in Modern Railways, page 76:

     The Esk Valley route to Whitby was a classic example: a basic four trains a day service has persisted for decades, with economy the watchword.

2. (military, security) A prearranged reply to the challenge of a sentry or a guard; a password or signal 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

• “watchword”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “watchword”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.