- biography
- 1680s, probably from L. biographia, from Gk. bio- "life" (see bio-) + graphia "record, account," from graphein "to write." Biographia was not in classical Gk. (bios alone was the word for it), though it is attested in later Gk. from c.500. Biographer is recorded from 1715; biographical from 1738.