'ammine' originates from 'ammonia', specifically the word 'ammonium', where 'ammon-' referred to the chemical compound ammonia and '-ine' is a suffix used in chemistry to denote derivatives or compounds.

'ammonium' transformed into the term 'ammine' to specifically denote ammonia complexes in coordination chemistry.

Initially, it referred to ammonia derivatives, but over time it evolved into its current meaning of coordination compounds involving ammonia.