argot n : a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: cant, jargon, slang, lingo, patois, vernacular]

English

Noun

1. A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps, and vagabonds.
2. The specialized vocabulary and terminology used between people with special skill in a field, such as between doctors, mathematicians or hackers.

   The conversation was in the argot of the trade, full of acronyms and abbreviations that made no sense to the uninitiate.

Translations

French

Noun

fr-noun m

1. cant (secret language)
2. slang

Derived terms

• argotique

Argot (French and Spanish for "slang") is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations.

Victor Hugo was one of the first to research argot extensively http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/popcorn/convicts2.html. He describes it in his novel, Les Misérables, as the language of the dark; at one point, he says, "What is argot; properly speaking? Argot is the language of misery."

Bruce Sterling defines argot as "the deliberately hermetic language of a small knowledge clique... a super-specialized geek cult language that has no traction in the real world." For example: "He philosophized and recited baseball statistics in a Brooklyn argot that was fast-fading."

See also

• Barallete
• Bargoens
• Bron
• Caló (Chicano)
• Caló (Spanish Romani)
• Cant
• Carny
• Cockney rhyming slang
• Doublespeak
• Fala dos arxinas (Verbo dos arginas)
• Gacería
• Gail
• Germanía
• Klezmer-loshn
• Language game
• Leet
• LGBT argot
• Louchebem
• Nadsat
• Pig Latin
• Polari
• Rotwelsch
• Šatrovački
• Shibboleth
• Thieves' cant
• Variety (linguistics)
• Verlan
• Wrestling Slang
• Yeshivish
• Xíriga

Aesopian language, Babel, Greek, babble, cant, cipher, code, cryptogram, double Dutch, garble, gibberish, gift of tongues, glossolalia, gobbledygook, jargon, jumble, lingo, mumbo jumbo, noise, patois, patter, phraseology, scatology, scramble, secret language, slang, taboo language, vernacular, vocabulary, vulgar language