What do you call the representative logo of a soccer team?

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 1:08 pm

Thanks

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:13 pm

If it's a logo you call it a logo. A mascot is different...

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:56 pm

I'm talking about the logo the players show on their shirts

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 5:31 pm

Actually, I was going to say "If it's a logo e.g. on the soccer shirt, then just call it a logo", but obviously I chose not to modify "logo", because I guess I wasn't 100% sure if the thing on the shirt IS a logo!

So, I can see your problem now (and kind of saw it before too). I'll be back soon if I find an answer, but I've gotta tell you, I am not a big footie fan and only have general resources (dictionaries) to check with. Maybe there'll be something on the net...anyway, I think "logo" sounds fine in relation to "shirt" and other club gear, it is almost certainly the correct term, and even if it isn't, I doubt if anyone would misunderstand.

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 8:10 pm

In Spanish we refer to that as a the team 'escudo' (shield) like in a coat of arms in Heraldics.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 8:19 pm

Wow, the coincidences here are getting uncanny! I was also thinking "coat of arms?" (like we were both thinking "logo on a shirt"), but I am pretty sure that is not the way to say it in English - "logo" is definitely better than "coat of arms"!

Perhaps something like "the club's crest" is what you are looking for? (But again, I need to check, I've been busy writing on other threads and still haven't checked even for just "logo" yet! I'll do both words - logo and crest - now).

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 8:56 pm

I got a lot of "soccery" search results for "club's + crest" on Yahoo just now:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1- ... +%2b+crest

When I entered "club's + logo", the results were more mixed (i.e. not so much about soccer):
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1- ... s+%2b+logo

I am therefore pretty sure that "crest" is the word you were looking for (but be aware that this could just be a term used mainly in British sports journalism, in news about football clubs).

From The New Oxford Thesaurus of English:

"logo"
noun
the company logo
emblem, company emblem, trademark; device, symbol, design, sign, mark, figure, stamp, monogram; insignia, crest, seal, coat of arms, shield, badge, motif, hallmark, logotype, colophon

"arms"
2 the family arms
crest, emblem, heraldic device, coat of arms, armorial bearing, insignia, escutcheon, shield, heraldry, blazonry.
See table at heraldry. heraldic.

Other possible words (that appear in BOTH NOTE entries) to "crest" and "logo" could be: "emblem" and "insignia". I'll leave it to you to do further "collocation" searches and decide for yourself which of the four possible "contenders" here is best.

One (inexplicable?) flaw/limitation (of space?) of even the best thesauruses is that the same "meaning collection/groups" of words that appear in one entry do not always all appear at another (thus a person would need to go to "heraldry" - "estucheon" has no entry - to know that "crest", "emblem" etc also have this heraldic sense of "sheild"; nor is it explained in the "sheild" entry that there is a table at "heraldry"! Furthermore, the table itself gives no indication of the meaning groupings, it is just a long alphabetical list. A non-native user would therefore have to do a lot of detective work and cross-referencing to tease "crest" out of the NOTE if they started from "sheild"! By the way, there's no entry for "Coat of arms", only "arms"):

"sheild"
noun
1 using his shield to fend off blows buckler, target; (in Australia) hielaman; heraldry escutcheon; mythology aegis; archaic targe.

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:37 pm

So what I was looking for is the "team crest". But some advice from a football fan/teacher would be welcome.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:40 pm

cftranslate wrote:So what I was looking for is the "team crest". But some advice from a football fan/teacher would be welcome.

Indeed. Come on, you hooligans, I mean, fans!

wjserson · Post by **wjserson** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:20 am

Ok, I'm Canadian and am not a big footie fan but do enjoy the sport of ice hockey (I wish they weren't on strike now) and the word "crest", in my point of view, is indeed a British term. It also might be used by older N.Americans. But I state with absolute certanty that we say "logo" and "team logo" to signify the symbol chosen to represent a sports team.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:25 am

That is the team badge (or club badge) which generally contains the team crest.

Watch out when you talk to me. I am a very tough hooligan. These days I follow English soccer through the pages of the on-line Guardian.

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