'anopisthographically' originates from Greek elements, specifically 'an-' + 'opistho-' + 'graph', where 'an-' meant 'not', 'opistho-' meant 'behind' or 'back', and 'graph' meant 'to write'.

'anopisthographic' is a modern English (scholarly) formation from Greek roots (via Neo-Latin/19th-century scholarly coinage), and the adverb 'anopisthographically' was formed by adding the English adverbial suffix '-ally' to the adjective.

Initially formed to mean 'not written on the back (of a leaf)', and this specialised sense has been retained in modern usage to denote 'written on one side only'.