"A device for automatically recording the course of a vehicle. Also (in early use): an instrument for measuring the length of stride of a person, animal, etc., and the number of paces taken", Late 19th cent.; earliest use found in Nature: a weekly journal of science. From French odographe (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1878) from ancient Greek ὁδός way + French -graphe.[odograph etymology, odograph origin, 英语词源]