'argentarius' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'argentarius', where 'argentum' meant 'silver' and the suffix '-arius' meant 'pertaining to' or 'connected with'.

'argentarius' passed into Medieval Latin and influenced Old French forms such as 'argentier', and these Romance-language forms in turn influenced Middle English borrowings (e.g. 'argentier'/'argentary'); the Latin form also appears unchanged in some English historical texts.

Initially, it meant 'a person dealing in silver (i.e., a money-changer or banker)', and over time it has retained the general sense of 'banker' or 'money-changer' in historical and scholarly contexts.