n.pl '1851, ancient drawings or writings scratched on walls, as those of Pompeii and Rome; borrowing of Italian graffiti, plural of graffito- a scribbling, ultimately from Greek graphein- draw, write. The transferred meaning, applied to recently made crude drawings or scribblings, is first recorded in English in 1877.' -Barnhart, Robert K. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: The origins of American English Words. H. W. Wilson Company, 1995.
