argot

a completely foreign word to me!

Definition of argot:
n. "A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group: thieves' argot." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
11/03/07 – NY Times article published 11/02/07 titled "Hail the Conquered Hero" by Dick Cavett.

“…Imus and his supporting cast were remarkably up on the latest slang, rap talk and inside argot of the music world, the sports world, the street and all minorities. They knew everybody’s trash talk. Hearing it helped the listener feel hip, too. Or at least hep. But there lay the snare that entangled Imus…”

My two cents:
I simply love Dick Cavett’s vocabulary. I can’t recall if he’s Yale or Harvard, but the literary references in his language are always those of an extremely well-educated writer. His article concerns the debacle resulting from Don Imus’ unfortunate “nappy-headed ho” commentary on his talk radio show a while back. After reading Cavett’s sentence, “The joke hit the fan and Yeats’s 'the worst' filled themselves with passionate intensity,” I headed for the internet to look up the Yeats reference. Turns out, Yeats wrote a very famous poem titled, “The Second Coming” (how did I miss this in my college education? Chalk it up to art school vs. Harvard). Apparently, certain lines are famous and quoted a lot, among them: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

And while I’m at it, the following sentence contained no foreign words, but I loved it enough to mention it here anyway: “Wee embers were fanned into an inferno by skilled flame-fanners and the professionally offended.” Professionally offended. That’s genius.

But I digress. As for the topic at hand, “argot,” it's a new one for me and I'm pleased and proud to learn it. As they say in the south, "Bless my heart."