'antennifer' originates from Latin elements: 'antenna' (originally Latin 'antenna' meaning a sail-yard or yardarm, later used for insect feelers) combined with the suffix '-fer' from Latin 'ferre' meaning 'to bear' or 'to carry'.

'antenna' was a Latin word for a ship's yard; in the 18th century it was applied to insect feelers in scientific Latin/English. The suffix '-fer' (from Latin 'ferre') has long been used in New Latin and English formations to mean 'bearing' (cf. 'conifer', 'somniferous'), yielding the formation 'antennifer'.

Initially, 'antenna' referred to a part of a ship; over time it came to mean the sensory appendage on arthropods, and with the suffix '-fer' the compound came to mean 'bearing antennae' in technical descriptions.