'barograph' originates from Greek, specifically the element 'baro-' from the word 'baros', where 'baros' meant 'weight, pressure', and the suffix '-graph' from the Greek 'graphē', where 'graphē' meant 'to write'.

'barograph' was coined in modern English in the 19th century as a compound of the combining form 'baro-' (from Greek 'baros') and '-graph' (from Greek 'graphē'), modeled on related scientific coinages such as 'barometer' and 'seismograph'.

Initially the Greek root 'baros' conveyed the idea of 'weight' (and by extension 'pressure'), and the compound originally conveyed 'a device that writes/records pressure'; over time this stabilized specifically as the name for an instrument that records atmospheric pressure.