ถ้อยคำมาสคอตmascotmascotte

The route is short and well-marked: masco, a Provençal word for a sorceress, into French mascotte meaning a lucky charm, used for anything that brought luck to a household. Wikipedia's article dates the first record to 1867 and the arrival in English to 1881, in the sense of a specific living creature attached to a human organisation as a symbol or live logo. What moved it from French gamblers' slang into general use was a stage piece: Edmond Audran's La mascotte, performed in December 1880.

Before all that the word sat on objects of a kind this atlas is full of — a lock of hair, a figurehead on a sailing ship.

The costume came later, and it came from puppetry. Animals were used first, by sports organisations, to entertain spectators and to unsettle opponents. Stylistic changes in American puppetry in the middle of the twentieth century, including the work of Jim Henson and of Sid and Marty Krofft, were adapted to sports mascots, and the three-dimensional costumed character followed — the Phillie Phanatic, the Flyers' Gritty, the Seattle Kraken's Buoy, the Washington Commanders' Major Tuddy. Marketers took the form from there.

The live argument attached to the word is over mascots based on human likenesses. Mascots using Native American tribes are contested, and many argue they are offensive exploitations of an oppressed culture. Several tribes have taken the other position: the Utah Utes and the Central Michigan Chippewas are sanctioned by local tribes, and Florida State's use of Osceola and Renegade is supported by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, though the university declines to call them mascots. Both sides are named here and neither is joined.