'stenographer' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'stenographos', where 'steno-' meant 'narrow' and 'graphos' meant 'to write.'

'stenographer' changed from the Greek word 'stenographos' into Medieval/Modern Latin and French forms such as 'stenographie' (meaning 'narrow writing' or 'shorthand'), and the English nouns 'stenography' and the agent noun 'stenographer' developed from these forms in the 17th–19th centuries.

Initially it referred to the idea of 'narrow writing' (i.e., a compact or shortened form of writing); over time it came to mean specifically 'a person who writes shorthand' or 'a person who transcribes speech quickly.'