Graffiti – you see it everywhere from city streets to high school hallways. Graffiti can run the gamut from hastily scribbled tags of someone’s street name to carefully thought-out art that critiques contemporary society.
The word graffiti comes from the Italian language. “Graffiti” is actually the plural of the word “graffito.” They are both derived from the word graffio, which means “a scratch.” The original graffiti was scratched into the surface, not just painted. Ultimately, the word is derived from Greek – graphein – meaning to write, draw, or scratch. (This gives us the common word root –graph.)
Graffiti was first labeled as such in 1851 in reference to ancient inscriptions etched into the walls – that is, “scratches” – of the ruins of the city of Pompeii. The definition has since expanded to include all sorts of public art, from hastily made drawings to elaborately executed street art.