We Should Live - Ben Bateman

My six-year-old son wanted to know the difference between a slogan and a motto, and this prompted some etymological research:

‘Slogan’ comes from Gaelic ’sluagh-gairn’, meaning a battle cry used by Scottish Highlanders or Irish.  So a slogan is designed to inspire momentary passion, but it doesn’t need to be particularly profound.  American examples would be “Remember the Alamo,” “Remember the Maine,” “Never again” (referring to the Holocaust), or the more modern “Let’s roll” (referring to terrorism).  They are or were laden heavily with emotion, but they don’t actually carry much meaning in themselves.  You have to know the story behind them.

‘Motto’ comes from a Latin word for muttering or grunting.  One source indicates that it referred to the words written on a heraldric design, and that’s consistent with the broader consensus that a motto in current usage is a guiding principle, goal, or ideal.