silence [ME] Both silence and silent [LME] came from Latin silere, ‘to be silent’. The fuller form of silence is golden is speech is silver but silence is golden. Both are recorded from the 19th century. Originally the silent majority [L19th] were the dead. In the 20th century they became those who hold moderate opinions but rarely express them. Richard Nixon brought the phrase to prominence by claiming to speak for this section of society in his 1968 presidential campaign.