Graft
late Middle English graff, from Old French grafe, via Latin from Greek graphion ‘stylus, writing implement’ (with reference to the tapered tip of the scion), from graphein ‘write’. The final -t is typical of phonetic confusion between -f and -ft at the end of words; compare with tuft.
wiktionary
From Middle English graffe, from Old French greffe(“stylus”), from Latin graphium(“stylus”), from Ancient Greek γραφείον(grapheíon), from γράφειν(gráphein, “to write”); probably akin to English carve. So named from the resemblance of a scion or shoot to a pointed pencil. Compare graphic, grammar.
From Middle Dutch graft(“canal”), from graven(“dig”). [1] The contemporary senses “depth of digging blade” and “narrow spade” may have a separate history, but this is uncertain. Compare Old Norse grǫft(“the action of digging”). [2] Attested from the 17th century.
Uncertain. Some lexicographers suggest an extended use of Etymology 2, above, expanding from “digging” to work more generally, [3] and from there to dishonest work. [4] Others, however, suggest an extension from Etymology 1, shifting from “a shoot or scion” to the notion of corruption through the idea of excrescence. [5]
etymonline
graft (n.1)
"shoot inserted into another plant," late 15c. alteration of Middle English graff (late 14c.), from Old French graife "grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen," from Latin graphium "stylus," from Greek grapheion "stylus," from graphein "to write" (see -graphy). So called probably on resemblance of a stylus to the pencil-shaped shoots used in grafting. The terminal -t in the English word is not explained. Surgical sense is from 1871.
graft (n.2)
"corruption," 1865, perhaps 1859, American English, perhaps from British slang graft "one's occupation" (1853), which is perhaps from the identical word meaning "a ditch, moat," literally "a digging" (1640s), from Middle Dutch graft, from graven "to dig" (see grave (v.)).
graft (v.)
late 15c., "insert a shoot from one tree into another," from graft (n.1). Figurative use by 1530s. Surgical sense by 1868. Related: Grafted; grafting.
