'historiographer' originates from New Latin 'historiographus', ultimately from Greek 'historiographos', where 'historia' meant 'inquiry, history' and 'graphein' meant 'to write'.

The Greek 'historiographos' passed into Latin as 'historiographus' and via Medieval/Modern Latin and early modern English formed the English word 'historiographer'.

Initially it meant 'one who writes history' and especially 'an official recorder of events'; over time it has remained largely the same but has also been used more broadly to mean any historian or writer of history.