Slogan

How to spell slogan

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce slogan

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does slogan mean?

1. nounA short, memorable phrase used in advertising or campaigning to express an idea or sell a product.

Slogan in a sentence

• The marketing team spent weeks crafting a catchy slogan for the new drink.

• Protesters chanted the same slogan as they marched toward the town hall.

Where does slogan come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

Slogan comes from the Scottish Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm, which literally meant 'army cry' or 'battle shout', built from sluagh meaning 'army' or 'host of people' and gairm meaning 'a cry' or 'a call'. In the Scottish Highlands a clan's sluagh-ghairm was the rallying word the warriors would shout in battle to gather and identify their own side. English borrowed it in the sixteenth century, where it first appeared in spellings like 'slogorne' and 'slughorn' before settling into the modern form. Over time the meaning softened from a literal war cry into any catchphrase used to rally support, and by the nineteenth century it had taken on its everyday sense of a short, memorable phrase used in advertising and politics. The Gaelic origin explains the slightly unexpected single 'g' and the plain '-an' ending, since the word was reshaped from sounds that English speakers heard rather than from a familiar Latin pattern.

How the word is built

• From Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm: sluagh (army, host)
• gairm (cry, shout); anglicised to slogan