graffiti
[gruh-fee-tee]
- plural of graffito.
- (used with a plural verb) markings, as initials, slogans, or drawings, written, spray-painted, or sketched on a sidewalk, wall of a building or public restroom, or the like: These graffiti are evidence of the neighborhood's decline.
- (used with a singular verb) such markings as a whole or as constituting a particular group: Not much graffiti appears around here these days.
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Origin of graffiti
Usage note
In formal speech and writing graffiti takes a plural verb. In less formal contexts it is sometimes considered a mass noun and is used with a singular verb. The singular graffito is found mostly in archaeological and other technical writing.
graffito
[gruh-fee-toh]
- Archaeology. an ancient drawing or writing scratched on a wall or other surface.
- a single example of graffiti.
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Origin of graffito
see origin at graffiti
Usage note
See graffiti.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for graffiti
Contemporary Examples
Graffiti was borne out of the South Bronx streets as one of the key pillars of the hip-hop movement.
The amount of graffiti on such a wall would depend on the commitment of its defenders.
Goldman is now dead, but his family still runs his business and maintains the graffiti wall.
Two years later and sober, he was still acting out, facing 17 years for graffiti and vandalism.
Like most graffiti artists, she keeps a low profile and her identity is a secret.
Historical Examples
The walls341 of this passage are covered with graffiti and other records of pilgrims.
Pagan and Christian RomeRodolfo Lanciani
We stayed two days at Eriosh to study the graffiti and tombs.
Southern ArabiaTheodore Bent
With reference to the graffiti, one singular circumstance mentioned by De Rossi is worth repeating here.
There was a guardhouse at the front of the complex, but it was shuttered, abandoned, and graffiti tagged.
MakersCory Doctorow
Ali Hamid's son took us the next day on fast-trotting camels to visit some graffiti on basaltic rocks about eight miles distant.
Southern ArabiaTheodore Bent
graffiti
- (sometimes with singular verb) drawings, messages, etc, often obscene, scribbled on the walls of public lavatories, advertising posters, etc
- archaeol inscriptions or drawings scratched or carved onto a surface, esp rock or pottery
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Word Origin
C19: graffito from Italian: a little scratch, from graffio, from Latin graphium stylus, from Greek grapheion; see graft 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for graffiti
n.
1851, for ancient wall inscriptions found in the ruins of Pompeii, from Italian graffiti, plural of graffito "a scribbling," a diminutive formation from graffio "a scratch or scribble," from graffiare "to scribble," ultimately from Greek graphein "to scratch, draw, write" (see -graphy). Sense extended 1877 to recently made crude drawings and scribbling.
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graffito
n.
singular of graffiti (q.v.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper