A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment. Their purpose is a combination of arousing aggression and esprit de corps on one's own side and causing intimidation on the hostile side. Battle cries are a universal form of display behaviour (i.e., threat display) aiming at competitive advantage, ideally by overstating one's own aggressive potential to a point where the enemy prefers to avoid confrontation altogether and opts to flee. In order to overstate one's potential for aggression, battle cries need to be as loud as possible, and have historically often been amplified by acoustic devices such as horns, drums, conches, carnyxes, bagpipes, bugles, etc. (see also martial music).
Battle cries are closely related to other behavioral patterns of human aggression, such as war dances and taunting, performed during the "warming up" phase preceding the escalation of physical violence. From the Middle Ages, many cries appeared on speech scrolls in standards or coat of arms as slogans (see slogan (heraldry)) and were adopted as mottoes, an example being the motto "Dieu et mon droit" ("God and my right") of the English kings. It is said that this was Edward III's rallying cry during the Battle of Crécy. The word "slogan" originally derives from sluagh-gairm or sluagh-ghairm (sluagh = "people", "army", and gairm = "call", "proclamation"), the Scottish Gaelic word for "gathering-cry" and in times of war for "battle-cry". The Gaelic word was borrowed into English as slughorn, sluggorne, "slogum", and slogan.
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A motto is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mottos are usually found predominantly in written form, and may stem from long traditions of social foundations, or from significant events, such as a civil war or a revolution. One's motto may be in any language, but Latin has been widely used, especially in the Western world.
The takbīr is the name for the Arabic phrase Allāhu ʾakbar.
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a slogan as "a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising". A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and appealing to the audience.
In various East Asian languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the phrase "Wànsuì", "Banzai", "Manse", and "Vạn tuế", respectively, meaning "myriad years" is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "Long live" in English. The phrase originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the emperor. Due to the historical political and cultural influence of Chinese culture on the East Asian cultural sphere, in the area, and in particular of the Classical Chinese language, cognates with similar meanings and usage patterns have appeared in many East Asian languages and Vietnamese. In some countries, this phrase is mundanely used when expressing feeling of triumph, typically shouted by crowds.
"Gott strafe England" was an anti-British slogan used by the Imperial German Army during World War I. The phrase literally means "May God punish England". It was created by the German-Jewish poet Ernst Lissauer (1882–1937), who also wrote the poem Hassgesang gegen England.
"Victory or death" and its equivalents, is used as a motto or battle cry.
Waheguru is a term used in Sikhism to refer to God as described in Guru Granth Sahib. It is the most common term to refer to God in modern Sikhism.
Bole So Nihal is a Jaikara or war cry or Clarion call of Sikhs given by the Tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
Deus vult is a Christian motto relating to Divine providence. It was first chanted by Catholics during the First Crusade in 1096 as a rallying cry, most likely under the form Deus le veult or Deus lo vult, as reported by the Gesta Francorum and the Historia Belli Sacri.
Sat Sri Akaal is a Jaikara now used, often, as a greeting by Sikhs. It is the second half of the Sikh Clarion call, given by the Tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, "Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal".
Gott mit uns is a phrase commonly used in heraldry in Prussia and later by the German military during the periods spanning the German Empire (1871–1918), Weimar Republic (1918–1933), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). It was also commonly used by Sweden in most of its wars and especially as a battle cry during the Thirty Years' War.
Death to America is an anti-American political slogan widely used in North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Pakistan. Originally used by North Korea since the Korean War, Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, popularized the term. He opposed the chant for radio and television, but not for protests and other occasions.
Alala was the personification of the war cry in Greek mythology. Her name derives from the onomatopoeic Greek word ἀλαλή (alalḗ), hence the verb ἀλαλάζω (alalázō), "to raise the war-cry". Greek soldiers attacked the enemy with this cry in order to cause panic in their lines and it was asserted that Athenians adopted it to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess Athena.
A slogan is used in Scottish heraldry as a heraldic motto or a secondary motto. It usually appears above the crest on a coat of arms, though sometimes it appears as a secondary motto beneath the shield. The word slogan dates from 1513. It is a variant of the earlier slogorn, which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm. In other regions it is called a war-cry.
The rebel yell was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers used the yell when charging to intimidate the enemy and boost their own morale, although the yell had many other uses. There are audio clips and film footage of veterans performing the yell many years later at Civil War veterans' reunions. The origin of the yell is uncertain.
Youm-e-Takbir is celebrated as a national day in Pakistan on May 28 in commemoration of Chagai-I and Chagai-II series of nuclear tests. The nuclear tests made Pakistan the seventh nation to possess nuclear weapons and the first in the Muslim world.
"Glory to Ukraine!" is a Ukrainian national salute, known as a symbol of Ukrainian sovereignty and resistance to foreign aggression. It is the battle cry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is often accompanied by the response "To the heroes — glory!".
The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" is one of the rallying cries from The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Bijî Serok Apo is a slogan used by sympathizers with Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and can be translated into Long live leader Apo. Apo can be translated also into uncle. The slogan can lead to prosecution in Turkey and Germany.