'amino-cleavage' is a Modern English compound combining 'amino' and 'cleavage'. 'Amino' is the combining form derived from 'amine' (itself coined in the 19th century from Modern Latin/French usage ultimately connected to 'ammonia'), where the element 'amino-' signals relation to an amine (derived from ammonia). 'Cleavage' comes from Middle English 'clevage' (from Old English 'cleofan'), with the sense 'the act of splitting or cleaving.'

'Amino-' was formed in modern chemical nomenclature as a combining form from 'amine' in the 19th century; 'cleavage' evolved from Old English 'cleofan' through Middle English 'clevage' to the modern noun 'cleavage'. The compounded technical term 'amino-cleavage' emerged in 20th-century chemical literature to denote bond breaking associated with amino groups.

Individually, 'amino' originally referred to groups derived from ammonia and 'cleavage' to general splitting; when combined in chemical usage, the phrase specialized to mean 'bond breaking at or involving an amino (amine) function.'