tachygraphy n.

word-forming element meaning "rapid, swift, fast," from Latinized combining form of Greek takhys "swift, rapid, hasty," related to takhos "speed, swiftness," of uncertain origin.

word-forming element meaning "process of writing or recording" or "a writing, recording, or description" (in modern use especially in forming names of descriptive sciences), from French or German -graphie, from Greek -graphia "description of," used in abstract nouns from graphein "write, express by written characters," earlier "to draw, represent by lines drawn," originally "to scrape, scratch" (on clay tablets with a stylus), from PIE root *gerbh- "to scratch, carve" (see carve).

of or pertaining to Marcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero's scribe and namesake, 1828, especially in reference to the Tironian Notes (Latin notæ Tironianæ), a system of shorthand said to have been invented by him (see ampersand).

Although involving long training and considerable strain on the memory, this system seems to have practically answered all the purposes of modern stenography. It was still in familiar use as late as the ninth century. [Century Dictionary]