'antevocalicity' originates from the Latin prefix 'ante-' meaning 'before' plus Latin 'vocalis' (from 'vox', 'voice') meaning 'vocal' or 'vowel', combined with the English nominal suffix '-ity' which forms abstract nouns.

'antevocalicity' was formed in English from the adjective 'antevocalic' (ante- + vocalic) with the addition of the noun-forming suffix '-ity'; 'ante-' and 'vocalis' trace back through Late Latin and Classical Latin.

Initially it referred straightforwardly to 'the condition of being before a vowel'; over time it has remained a specialized technical term in phonetics and phonology with the same core meaning.