'anopia' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'anōpia', where 'an-' meant 'without' and 'ōps/opsis' meant 'vision, sight'.

'anopia' passed into medical Latin/Neo-Latin from Greek 'anōpia' and was adopted into English medical terminology as 'anopia' (plural 'anopias' or 'anopias').

Initially it meant 'absence of vision'; over time it has been used specifically in medicine to denote loss of vision in a particular part of the visual field (a visual field defect), though it can also refer generally to blindness.