'lithograph' originates from German (via French usage), specifically the word 'Lithographie', which itself comes from New Latin 'lithographia' built from Greek elements 'litho-' meaning 'stone' and '-graph' (from 'graphein') meaning 'to write'.

'lithograph' was coined in the late 18th / early 19th century after Alois Senefelder's invention of lithography; the German 'Lithographie' and French 'lithographie' were adopted into English as 'lithograph' and 'lithography'.

Initially, it literally meant 'to write on stone' or the process of printing from stone; over time it came to refer both to the printing process and to prints produced by that process, and to the verb meaning 'to produce by lithography'.