This paper reconstructs the historical practice of naming scientific instruments through the composition of Greek and Latin roots so that the name of an instrument could serve a self-definition and description of its role and function. Following the use and translations of “pantographe” and “météorographe” in the institutional practices of 18th-century France, the paper shows how the method of naming scientific instruments with the Greek root "graph" was first established in European scientific culture. By closely analyzing the etymological translations of the root "graph" within different institutional and non-institutional environments (as opposed to assuming an ahistorical absolute meaning which can be recovered through a dictionary definition), the paper proposes a methodological and functional reinterpretation of the late-18th and early-19th century "graph-instruments" as instruments whose perceived purpose in scientific process was that of describing natural phenomena, rather than inscribing data into archives. While the initial role and function of an instrument might have been viewed according to its name derived from vernacular translations of the Greek roots, as the instrument was moving across geographical boundaries, social groups, historical timelines, and institutional contexts, the translation and interpretation of its name and function was also altered to adjust to its volatile designations and capacities.
