Watchword

A watchword is a brief phrase that a group, movement, or campaign adopts as a public rallying line. Historically the word referred to a spoken password used by sentries — the 'watch word' that let one soldier recognise another in the dark — and the modern sense extends the same idea to ideas rather than persons. 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' is a watchword. 'Yes we can' is a watchword. 'Black lives matter' is a watchword.

Watchwords are closely related to slogans, but the two are not identical. A slogan is engineered for a specific campaign and often has a shelf life; a watchword is claimed by a movement and often outlives the moment that produced it. Watchwords tend to travel across languages, appear on banners and gravestones alike, and pick up new meanings as generations quote them into new fights.

For quoters, the ethical care with a watchword is proportional to its weight. Trivial redeployment of a serious watchword — dropping a civil-rights line into a product launch — is one of the most reliable ways to damage a piece of writing and to insult the community that owns the phrase. When in doubt, name the origin, honour the fight it came out of, and ask whether your use is amplifying that fight or borrowing its dignity.