argot

noun

ar·got ˈär-(ˌ)gō

-gət

Synonyms of argot next

: 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

Did you know?

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

groups communicating in their own secret argots used the argot of figure skaters

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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 In fact, to use the argot of finance as well as meteorology, it might be said that as of Friday afternoon, Washington was officially about 28 percent below average atmospheric liquidity. —

Martin Weil, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2023 See all Example Sentences for argot