'antebrachium' originates from Medieval Latin/Latin, specifically from the elements 'ante-' + 'brachium', where 'ante-' meant 'before, in front of' and 'brachium' meant 'arm'.

'antebrachium' was used in Medieval Latin (and classical Latin components) as a compound meaning 'before the arm' and was adopted into modern anatomical vocabulary in English largely unchanged as 'antebrachium'.

Initially, the compound literally meant 'before-arm' (the part of the limb anterior to the arm), and over time it remained a technical term referring specifically to the forearm in anatomical usage.