Definition of argot
: the language used by a particular type or group of people : an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group He has been bombarded by thousands of scathing messages—known as being “flamed” in the argot of cyberspace. — Peter H. Lewis
Explore M-W
argot was our Word of the Day on 05/16/2012. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Examples of argot in a Sentence
groups communicating in their own secret argots
used the argot of figure skaters
Recent Examples of argot from the Web
-
During her time at Breitbart, McHugh consistently made racially charged statements on her Twitter feed and used the argot of the alt-right twittersphere.
-
Leaders of the Democratic Party, eagerly chasing these semantic developments, have taken up the new argot, too.
-
This resulted in little Solomon acquiring an Aussie accent that required him to take special classes and lost the argot when the family moved back to the USA and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
-
Mrs. Trump, a former model, who impressed the designer with her command of fashion argot, had her own ideas.
-
That means the companies must translate the demanding argot of genetics — alleles and phenotypes and centromeres — into something approachable, even simple, for physicians and laypersons alike.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'argot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
We borrowed argot from French in the mid-1800s, although our language already had several words covering its meaning. There was jargon, which harks back to Anglo-French by way of Middle English (where it meant "twittering of birds"); it had been used for specialized (and often obscure or pretentious) vocabulary since the 1600s. There was also lingo, which had been around for almost a hundred years, and which is connected to the Latin word lingua ("language"). English novelist and lawyer Henry Fielding used it of "court gibberish" - what we tend to call legalese. In fact, the suffixal ending -ese is a newer means of indicating arcane vocabulary. One of its very first applications at the turn of the 20th century was for "American 'golfese.'"
Origin and Etymology of argot
French
Learn More about argot
-
See words that rhyme with argot Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for argot Spanish Central: Translation of argot Nglish: Translation of argot for Spanish speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about argot
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up argot? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Writing? Check your grammar now!