argot

noun

ar·​got ˈär-(ˌ)gō  -gət 

: 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.'"

Synonyms

• cant
• dialect
• jargon
• jive
• language
• lingo
• patois
• patter
• shop
• shoptalk
• slang
• terminology
• vocabulary

Examples of argot in a Sentence

groups communicating in their own secret argots

used the argot of figure skaters

Recent Examples on the Web

Brain rot is thus a strikingly capacious term, enfolding the psychological and cognitive decay wrought by screen addiction, the bacteria-like content that feeds the addiction, and the argot of a generation for whom much of this content is made. —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

Word History

Etymology

French

First Known Use

1825, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

argot

noun

ar·​got ˈär-gət  -gō 

: a more or less private vocabulary used by a particular class or group