'anodize' originates from the English word 'anode' combined with the suffix '-ize'. 'Anode' itself comes (via New Latin and English coinage) from Greek 'anodos' meaning 'way up' or 'upward path', where the prefix 'ana-' meant 'up' and 'hodos' meant 'way' or 'path'.

'Anode' was coined in the 19th century (credited to the 1830s usage by scientists such as William Whewell) from Greek 'anodos'. The verb 'anodize' was formed in the mid-19th century by adding the productive suffix '-ize' to 'anode', originally meaning 'to subject to anodic action' and later narrowing to the electrolytic formation of an oxide film.

Initially, it meant 'to make into or subject to an anode/ anodic action'; over time it evolved to the more specific modern sense 'to form a protective (or decorative) oxide coating on a metal surface by an electrolytic process'.