argent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English argent, also argentum,^[2] borrowed from Old French argent (“silver, silver money; quicksilver”),^[3][4][5][6] also through Middle French argent,^[7][8] and in part directly borrowed from Latin argentum (“silver, silver work, silver money”).^[2][8][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 12th century, with the senses silver, coin or money, quicksilver and silver-gilt.^[10] Etymonline derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *arg-ent-, a suffixed form of the root *arg- (“to shine; white”), so that silver is "the shining or white metal".^[3][4] It is cognate with Old Irish argat (“silver”), Welsh arian, Ancient Greek ἄργυρος (árguros, “silver”) and ἀργός (argós, “white”).^[7][11][12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also relates it to Latin arguō (“to make clear”), the source of argue.^[8][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quicksilver, the metal mercury: probably before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[7][2] in the Latin and French phrase argentum vivum or argent vif, living silver.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1300 and the senses "silver, silver coin" to the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named the metal silver and also cash, as in a London grocers' account of 1436–7, and was already used in heraldry for the silver tincture in a coat of arms by 1470.^[2] The sense "money" died out in the 18th century, the OED's last record being of 1742.^[14][6] As a name for the metal, recorded from Lord Berners's translation of Arthur of Little Britain (before 1533), it is now archaic or poetic,^[14][8][15] and the heraldic use is the main surviving one.^[14][15] The adjective, silvery or silvery white, appears in Marlowe's Massacre at Paris (before 1593).^[14] Johnson (1755) entered it only as an adjective, "the white colour used in the coats of gentlemen, knights, and baronets".^[16]

Timeline

• before 1425 – quicksilver, in argent vif and argentum vivum.^[7][2]
• 1436–7 – silver, or money paid in cash.^[2]
• 1470 – in heraldry, silver-coloured.^[2] The OED's first record of the heraldic tincture is of 1562.^[14]
• c. 1500 – silver coin; money (obsolete by 1742).^[14]
• before 1533 – the metal silver.^[14]
• before 1593 – adjective, made of or like silver; silvery white.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) silver, the metal; also its whiteness.^[8][14][15]
2. In heraldry, the silver or white tincture of a coat of arms.^[8][14]
3. (obsolete, 1500–1742) Silver coin; money.^[8][14][6]

Adjective

1. Made of or looking like silver; silvery: the argent light of the moon.^[8][14]
2. In heraldry, of the tincture argent, usually placed after the noun: a chevron argent.^[15][8][14]

Word family

• argentous
• argentic
• argentiferous
• argentine
• argentite

Related words

• argue
• Argentina

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.