What is argo? This word is of French origin and was formed from the noun argot. The latter comes from the French jargon, which sounds like "jargon." Although there is a difference between these concepts, they are often confused with each other. Read more about argo with examples of words and their meaning, as well as the difference between this term and jargon and slang, read in the article.
Definition
What is the meaning of the word "argo"? This is the language used by some closed group of people. It is characterized by the specificity of the vocabulary present in it, as well as the originality of its application. Moreover, such a language does not have its own phonetic and grammatical systems.
It should be noted that the term under study is often confused with concepts such as “jargon” and “slang”. Sometimes, even in special texts, there are variants of phrases, where we are talking about "thieves 'argo", "thieves' jargon", "youth jargon" and "youth slang." In terminological dictionaries, one concept is often explained through another, for example: “argo is the same as jargon” or “slang is the same as jargon”.
To understand what “argo" is, it is necessary to distinguish between these concepts.
Source concept
What is argo? This layer of language is a closed subsystem consisting of special words. They are used to serve highly social group interests, most often professional ones.
In this case, argotisms are narrow group nominations, similar to terms used in the practical interests of a certain social group, craft, profession, any business, including criminal.
It is for this reason that argotisms, as a rule, do without a bright evaluative coloring. These are professional argotisms-terms, which are quite numerous. For instance:
- among the military, a “bra” is a special vest that has pockets for ammunition;
- the cockade or emblem located on the uniform headdress is called “crab”;
- for students, “automatic” means getting a test or an assessment based on the results of current academic performance, without the process of passing the exam.
Continuing to consider what “argo" is, one of its functions should be mentioned.
Conspiracy function
Argotisms do not always have a precise analogue in the literary language. Not in all cases the content of argotism will be clear without a "transfer" to an uninitiated person. Sometimes the closeness, tightness inherent in the semantics of such words is an end in itself. It manifests itself in a characteristic function, a special function - conspiratorial. In this case, the carriers of argo hide group secrets from those around them, for example, from the authorities, victims, competitors, and robbers.
The most striking example of secret argo is the language of Offen. So called stray merchants in the 19th century. Both in the past and now, some of the argotisms present in the language of declassed elements have a secret and artificial character. We are talking about the so-called hairdryer, or “thieves” music.
For example, we can give the names of thieves' specialties:
- “Householder” - a thief specializing in apartment thefts;
- “Skokar” - a burglary;
- “Umbrella” - one who carries out a robbery through a hole in the ceiling;
- "Glazier" - a thief who enters the room through the glass previously squeezed out by him;
- "Pinch" - engaged in "cleaning" pockets.
There are also special names for a number of thieves ’shares. So, "fucking" means sharing the loot. As well as the names of tools, such as "vomiting", which thieves crack safes.
None of the social strata have such a large number of terms-argotisms that are incomprehensible to others. That is why it is preferable to call this kind of lexicon “thieves 'argo” rather than “thieves' jargon”.
In conclusion of the consideration of the question of what is "argo", it is necessary to say about the difference between this concept and two others similar to it.
Difference of Terms
What is the difference between the concept of "argo" from jargon and slang?
Jargon, in comparison with argo, is a broader concept. This is not a closed, but a semi-closed subsystem. It operates within the same groups (among students, military, thieves, adolescents), but the elements included in it are already more understandable for other native speakers of the Russian language. For example: “garbage” (police officer), “shoe” (trick), “pinwheel” (helicopter), “lip” (guardhouse).
As for the term “slang,” its use is associated with larger conglomerations. Therefore, it is no coincidence that this word is often used in such a phrase as “youth slang”. This is already such a subsystem of the language, which refers to the supergroup. Such words include, for example: “grandmothers”, “idiot”, “cool”, “bummer”, “give on the paw”, “joke”, “on the drum”, “got it”, “on the ball”.