'argentometry' originates from New Latin/Modern scientific coinage, ultimately from Latin 'argentum' and Greek 'argyros', where 'argent-' meant 'silver' and the element '-metry' comes from Greek 'metron' meaning 'measure'.

'argentometry' developed as a technical formation in 19th-century chemical literature by combining the prefix 'argent-' (from Latin 'argentum') with the suffix '-metry' (from Greek 'metron'), and eventually became the modern English scientific term 'argentometry'.

Initially, the roots indicated 'measurement of silver' in a broad sense, but over time the term came to be used specifically for titrimetric analytical methods employing silver salts to determine anions (for example, halides).