Slogan - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

SLOGAN, the war-cry of the Highland clans. It was the gathering call of the clan, often the name of the clan, the place of meeting, and the like, and was uttered when charging in battle. The Gaelic word, of which " slogan " is the English adaptation, is sluagh-ghairm, from sluagh, army, host, and gairm, call, cry. A variant form of " slogan " is " slogorne," which has given rise to an invented word " slughorn," used by Chatterton (Battle of Hastings, ii. io) and by Browning (Childe Roland) as if the term meant some kind of war-trumpet or horn. Skeat (Etym. Diet. 1898, Errata and Addenda) has shown that Chatterton used an edition of Gavin Douglas's translation of Virgil, where" slogorne " is spelled " slughorne," and the context, " The deaucht trumpet blawis the brag of were; the slughorne, enseule or the wache cry went for the battall all suld be reddy," misled him.