'anophthalmos' originates from Greek, specifically the elements 'an-' + 'ophthalmos', where 'an-' meant 'without' and 'ophthalmos' meant 'eye'.

'anophthalmos' comes from Greek 'an-' + 'ophthalmos', passed into New Latin/medical Latin as 'anophthalmos', and was adopted into modern English with the same form and medical sense.

Initially it meant 'without eye' in the original Greek sense; over time it has retained that core meaning and now specifically denotes the congenital absence of one or both eyes.