watchword

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wacche-word,^[2][3] formed from English watch + word,^[4][2][5][6] with the first element in its military sense of a spell of guard duty.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A word used to identify oneself to a guard, a password.^[4][2] Before 1399 the Anglo-Norman Anonimalle Chronicle says that the commons had une wache worde en Engleys, “With whom haldes yow?”, answered by “Wyth kynge Richarde and wyth the trew communes”.^[4] The OED's first English text is the translation of Vegetius made in 1408, in a manuscript from before 1450: whoever cannot answer to the wacche word is to be taken as an enemy.^[4][2] Etymonline gives about 1400,^[6] Dictionary.com 1350–1400,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged only about 1513.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the word that let a soldier pass, the term spread in the 15th century to a word of warning or advice (1460 to 1760) and to a planned signal for an attack; one text before 1475 tells how King Alrede had the Danes killed by a comen wacchworde among the English.^[4][2] More used it before 1535 for a sign by which members of a group recognise each other.^[4] The modern sense, a phrase that sums up a person's or party's guiding principle, the OED, revised in 2026, finds from 1597.^[4] Etymonline's date is 1738, and the Shorter Oxford's the mid 18th century.^[6][5] Johnson (1755) still knew only the military sense, the word given to sentries to recognise their friends, quoting Spenser, Shakespeare and Sandys.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1399 – a password, quoted as English in an Anglo-Norman chronicle.^[4]
• 1460 – a word of caution or warning (until 1760).^[4]
• before 1475 – a preplanned signal to begin an attack.^[4][2]
• before 1535 – a password used among the members of a group.^[4]
• 1539 – a signal to do something, a secret sign (until 1879).^[4]
• 1597 – a slogan or motto expressing a guiding principle.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense 1738.^[6]
• 1615 – the call of a sentry on his rounds (until 1890).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word or phrase that expresses a guiding principle; a motto, slogan or rallying cry: Thrift was the family's watchword.^[9][3][4]
2. A secret word that allows a person to pass a guard; a password.^[9][3][4]
3. A word or phrase by which members of a group or class recognise one another.^[3][4]
4. (archaic) A prearranged signal for an attack or other action.^[3][4]
5. (archaic) A sentry's or watchman's call.^[3][4]
6. (obsolete, 1460–1760) A word of caution; a warning.^[4][5]

Related words

• watcher
• watchman
• watch
• word

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins