Art & MusicGreek → English
Graffiti
/ɡrəˈfiːti/noun
Words or drawings put on a public surface without permission.
The Greek roots
γράφειν
gráphein
to scratch, to write
Literally: “little scratchings”
Follow a root:γράφειν39 words
The story of the word
Before it meant writing, γράφειν meant scratching, the act of cutting a line into wax, clay or stone. Archaeologists at Pompeii used the Italian graffiti in the 1850s for the scratched wall inscriptions coming out of the ash, and the word entered English already plural. Modern spray paint scratches nothing, so the name now contradicts its own root, and the singular graffito survives mostly among the archaeologists who started it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Italian → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
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In a sentence
The Pompeii graffiti include election slogans, insults and a complaint about the wine.
Somebody had scrubbed the graffiti off the shutter overnight.