Mascot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A mascot – originally a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – now includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or corporation. Mascots are also used as fictional spokespeople for consumer products, such as the rabbit used in advertising and marketing for the General Mills Trix brand of breakfast cereal.
Mascots are prominent among university and other school sports teams, especially in the United States, where teams are often identified by their mascot. In many instances, the mascot corresponds with the team name. Teams often employ a performer to accompany them to games, wearing the mascot costume. Team merchandise typically bears the team logo and mascot. In some instances, the school itself may have a mascot, such as Rowdy the Roadrunner, the mascot of the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Often the choice of mascot reflects a desired quality; a common example of this is the fighting spirit, in which a competitive nature is personified by warriors or predatory animals. Mascots may also symbolize a local or regional trait, such as the Dallas Cowboys, which refers to the Texan ranching tradition, or the Nebraska Cornhuskers, whose mascot is Herbie Husker (a man wearing overalls and a cowboy hat with corn husks coming out one pocket). In instances where the traditional mascot is specifically male, all-female athletic teams may adopt a variation of the mascot, such as the University of Wyoming Cowboys, whose female teams are called the Cowgirls.
Mascots are not exclusively anthropomorphized animals or personifications of human character traits. For example, Stanford University's mascot is a color (cardinal), and its band's mascot is a tree.
In the United States, controversy surrounds some mascot choices, especially those of human likenesses. Mascots based on Native American tribes are particularly contentious, as many argue that they constitute offensive exploitations of an oppressed culture. However, such debates are not unique to Native American mascots: Alfred University, a school of approximately 2,000 students in Western New York has the Saxon as its mascot, represented as a charging knight in armor, and intended to symbolize strength and courage. Others protest that the Saxon represents male chauvinism.
Famous mascots outside the U.S. include the Australian McHammerhead, the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League mascot; Razorback Jack, the West Sydney Razorbacks Basketball mascot; and Syd, the Sydney AFL Club Mascot.
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[edit] Military mascots
Mascots are also popular in military units. For example, the United States Marine Corps uses the bald eagle as a formal emblem; the bulldog is also popularly associated with the U.S. Marines.
Many regiments of the British Army have a live animal mascot which may appear on parades, including a ram for the 95th Derbyshire Regiment, an Irish Wolfhound for the Irish Guards, a Shetland pony for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and a goat for the Royal Regiment of Wales. Other British military mascots include a pair of drummer horses, an antelope, and a ferret.
[edit] Etymology
The word mascot has been traced back to a dialectic use in Provence and Gascony, where it was used to describe anything which brought luck to a household. The suggestion that the word is derived from masqu (meaning masked or concealed), the Provincial French for a child born with a caul, in allusion to the lucky destiny of such children, is improbable.
The word was first popularized in 1880, when French composer Edmond Audran wrote a popular comic operetta titled La Mascotte. However, it had been in use in France long before this, as French slang among gamblers, derived from the Occitan word masco, meaning witch (perhaps from Portuguese mascotto, meaning witchcraft), and also mascoto, meaning spell.
Audran's operetta was so popular that it was translated into English as The Mascot, introducing into the English language a word for any animal, person, or object that brings good luck. The word with this definition was then incorporated into many other languages, although often in the French form mascotte.
[edit] See also
- Fursuit
- List of Australian Mascots
- List of mascots
- List of national animals
- List of U.S. college mascots
- List of video game mascots
- Military mascots
- National emblem
- National personification
- Olympic mascot
- FIFA World Cup mascot
- Spokesman
- Totem
