argentum

Argentum, argenti is second declension neuter, from an Indo-European root meaning "bright, shining" - the same root behind Greek arguros. Latin names the metal by what it looks like, which is also true of aurum and aes.

Because Roman coin was struck in it, argentum on its own very often means money or plate rather than raw metal, exactly as English "silver" can mean cutlery. The compound argentum vivum, "living silver", is mercury, and it is where quicksilver comes from. The Romance descendants kept the money sense hardest: French argent means both the metal and cash, and Argentina is named for a river the Spanish believed led inland to silver. English took argentine and the chemical symbol Ag; the everyday word is Germanic instead.