Arganʹtes (3 syl.)

A Circassian of high rank and matchless courage, but fierce to brutality, and an ultra-despiser of the sect of the Nazarenes. He was sent as an ambassador from Egypt to King Alʹadine. He and Solyman were by far the most doughty of the Pagan knights. The former was slain by Rinaldo, and the other by Tancred. (Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered.)

“Bonaparte stood before the deputies like the Argantës of Italy’s heroic poet and gave them the choice of peace and war, with the air of a superior being, capable at once of dictating their fate.”—Sir Walter Scott.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.