英和和英

語源

Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c. Doublet of mot.

発音

• (General American) IPA: /ˈmɑ.toʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmɒ.təʊ/
• (Canada) IPA: /ˈmɒ.to/
• 韻: (General American) -ɑtoʊ, (Received Pronunciation) -ɒtəʊ

名詞

motto (plural mottos or mottoes)

1. A personal slogan.

   You have to be in it to win it — that's my motto.

2. (heraldry) A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.

   Synonym: device

   • 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 10:

     ‘Gentlemen, I can tell you what the new queen will take as her motto. It is Bound to Obey and Serve.’

3. A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.
   • 1715 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 45. Wednesday, May 25. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

     It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
       Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […] ”

4. (obsolete) A paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.

同意語

• See also Thesaurus:saying

派生語

動詞

motto (third-person singular simple present mottos, present participle mottoing, simple past and past participle mottoed)

1. (intransitive) To compose mottos.
   • 2003, Nineteenth Century Prose, volume 30, page 304:

     The singularity of his epigraphic strategy notwithstanding, Emerson does not draw attention to his own mottoing. One exchange suggests that his practice was a convention imposed from without.

Further reading

• motto (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia