Armstrong's speech was rough and idiomatic, shaped by the street argot of black New Orleans.

Hearing their raps interpolated into Stephen Sondheim's stylized adaptation of 50's street argot, it becomes clear how little the terms of the debate about youthful misbehavior have changed over four decades.

This is the tat tvam asi truth of the Upanishads, but it's also reflected in modern street argot.

He has a good ear for street argot; readers allergic to four-letter words had better stay away.

Her singing is as free of gospel melisma as her lyric writing is bare of street argot.

Breathard said, automatically falling into street argot.

Mr. Vasquez's taut, funny screenplay blends a finely tuned ear for street argot with a shrewd sense of comic timing.

But in street argot, a master writer is referred to as a king, which suggests that in one corner of Western culture, the written word is regarded as sovereign after all.

Transcribing this cryptic message, the reporter explained: "Ruling, once part of the street argot of the 1960's, is the current chic word for being cool or powerful, for controlling a situation."