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Argot, like jargon, comes from French without change in spelling (or substantially in pronounciation). While it can be (and is) used as a synonym for jargon, as language particular to a group and sometimes a profession or trade (more often of the genre of detectives noir), its strongest use is for language used particularly by gangsters and the underworld. The Old French used it for the chattering of birds, lending the sense of unintelligibility to the English word.Īrgot is at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Jargon is an old word, coming to English in the mid-1300s from an Old French world of the same spelling. Jargon is defined as "the language.peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group." It is also used that is unintelligible, not understandable, or pedantic. Slang came into use in English in 1756 to define the "special vocabulary of tramps or thieves." It may have come from the Norwegian word slengenamn, which meant nickname, but the Oxford English Dictionary says that based on "date and early associations" such etymology is unlikely. It also has a definition of "the jargon of a particular class, profession, etc." I would use jargon for the language peculiar to a specific profession. Slang words are those that are more playful or vivid and less acceptable in polite language. Slang, idiom jargon, and argot are different from euphemisms in that they are not intended to avoid embarrassment.
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It was not until 1793 that the word began to be used for the replacement for an impolite word or phrase. It came from the Greek word eupemizein that means "speak with fair words, use words of good omen," according to. When the word euphemism came into use in English in the 1650s it was rhetorical, indicating the use of a favorable term in place of an inauspicious one. You probably remember Eumenides' substitution of "the Gracious Ones" for "the Furies." uses the example "to pass away" for "to die." The substitutions dates from ancient Greece (from whence came the word), when words were avoided out of superstition. George Carlin used the proliferation of euphemisms for several comedy routines. A euphemism is the substitution of a more acceptable expression (usually a phrase) for one that might be viewed as offensive or harsh. That is a long list of words for words that are outside of formal expression. In a recent post I was looking for the word that means a phrase used to avoid impolite words (euphemism) and ran across words like slang, idiom, and jargon.