Other forms: mascots
A mascot is the costumed figure a team or a company sends out to entertain a crowd — a giant grinning bird flapping along the touchline, somebody sweating inside a foam tiger suit. It is also anything a group keeps for luck: a regiment's goat, the little toy bolted to a driver's dashboard.
A mascot stands for a group and is meant to bring it luck, and the two ideas run together in the word. Companies have them as well as teams: the tiger on the cereal box, the duck in the insurance advert, the animal picked for a tournament or a city. Mascot is a noun only — you do not mascot anything. And it is spelt with one t in English, mascot and mascots, though the French original, mascotte, has two.
1nouncostumeA person in a costume who represents a team or organisation at events.
“The mascot ran onto the pitch and fell over the corner flag.”
2nounmascotAn animal, toy or object kept by a group because it is believed to bring luck.
“The squadron adopted a stray dog as their mascot.”
mascot is a lucky figure.
Mascot came from French mascotte, and before that from Occitan mascòta, a little charm or spell. Its parent was masca, a witch, and further back Medieval Latin masca meant a spectre or a nightmare — the same word that gave us mask. The furry giant waving at the crowd is, historically, a small piece of witchcraft.
Medieval Latin
masca — specter, nightmare
Old Occitan
masca
Occitan
mascòta — sortilege
French
mascotte
English, today
mascot
Built from
Borrowed from French mascotte, from Occitan mascòta (“sortilege”), feminine diminutive of masca (“witch”), from Old Occitan masca, from Medieval Latin masca (“specter, nightmare”). More at mask.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA