geography [LME] Geography goes back, via Latin, to Greek geographia, formed from ge ‘earth’ and graphia ‘description’ from graphein ‘to write’. The first meaning in English was that of the original languages—‘a textbook on geography’—developing into the study of the earth in the mid 16th century. Geology [M18th] was formed in English on the same model from ge combined with -logy formed from Greek logia ‘area of knowledge’.