English

argent

Argent comes from Old French argent ‘silver’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ- ‘white, argent, glittering’.

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂erǵ-¹‘white, argent, glittering’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom²‘silver’reconstructed
Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*argentom²‘silver’reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEargentum³‘white money, silver’
Old Frenchc. 842–1400argent³‘silver’
Middle Englishc. 1150–1500argent³
Englishearliest quotation 1733argent³

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom
² Wiktionary, Latin argentum
³ Wiktionary, English argent
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1733, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man. […]: “Or ask of yonder argent fields above, / Why…”.

Lineage

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂erǵ-1Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom‘white, argent, glittering’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom2Wiktionary, Latin argentum‘silver’reconstructed
Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*argentom2Wiktionary, Latin argentum‘silver’reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEargentum3Wiktionary, English argent‘white money, silver’
Old Frenchc. 842–1400argent3Wiktionary, English argent‘silver’
Middle Englishc. 1150–1500argent3Wiktionary, English argent
Englishearliest quotation 1733argent3Wiktionary, English argent. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1733, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man. […]: “Or ask of yonder argent fields above, / Why…”

noun The metal silver.

Sources: Wiktionary, “argent”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom, Latin argentum. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.