'anaphorical' originates from 'anaphora', which comes from Greek, specifically the word 'anaphora', where 'ana-' meant 'back' or 'again' and 'pherein' meant 'to carry'. The suffix '-ical' is used to form adjectives.

'anaphora' was adopted into Late Latin as 'anaphora', then into English, and the adjective form 'anaphorical' was created by adding the suffix '-ical'.

Initially, it referred to the rhetorical device of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, but in modern linguistics, it refers more broadly to any reference back to a previous element in discourse.