'stenographer' originates from modern English, ultimately from Greek. It comes via New Latin/modern use from Greek elements 'steno-' meaning 'narrow' and '-graph' meaning 'to write', combined in forms like 'stenograph' and 'stenography'.

'stenographos' (Greek elements) gave rise to New Latin/Modern terms such as 'stenography' and 'stenograph'; English adopted 'stenography' in the 18th-19th centuries and formed the agent noun 'stenographer' for a person who practises it.

Initially the root referred to the concept of 'writing narrowly' (i.e., shorthand writing); over time it came to mean the practice of rapid shorthand writing and the person who performs it, i.e., 'a person who records speech quickly in shorthand' (the modern meaning).