The story
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂erǵ-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ŕ̥ǵn̥tom
- Proto-Italic*argentom
- Latinargentum
- Latinargentīnu
- Spanishargentino
- SpanishArgentina
- English todayArgentina
From Latin argentum (“silver”) + the feminine of the adjectival suffix -īnus; in reference to the Río de la Plata ("silver river"). Compare typologically copper (<< Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros, “Cyprus”), a semantic shift in the opposite direction).
Words from the same roots
Latinargentum all →
argentineargentArgentiaargentaliumargentamineargentryminargenttelargpalite
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.