Peter H. Lewis
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We borrowed argot from French in the early 1800s, although our language already had several words covering its meaning. There was jargon, the Anglo-French ancestor of which meant "twittering of birds"; it had been used for specialized (and often obscure or pretentious) vocabulary since the 1600s. There was also lingo, from the Latin word lingua, meaning "language"; that term had been in use for more than a century. English novelist and lawyer Henry Fielding used it of "court gibberish"—what we tend to call legalese. And speaking of legalese, the suffix -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.'"
Examples of argot in a Sentence
Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
Many of the comments used the argot of the online far right.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2024
Inside, its décor suggests a combination of about seventeen distinct design argots: Tropicália, cozy tchotchke chalet, carhop neon.
—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 13 July 2024
In her argot, Ibsen’s characters sound like slow-talking, fast-thinking products of migration across the U.S.—people with country manners and city coolness lurking within.
—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for argot
Cite this Entry
“Argot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/argot. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
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