'anti-Macassar' originates from English, specifically the compound of 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against') and 'Macassar' (from the Indonesian place name 'Makassar'), where 'Macassar' referred to a popular hair oil.

'Macassar' changed from the place name 'Makassar' (the city in present-day Indonesia) and came to name 'Macassar oil'; 'anti-Macassar' was coined in Victorian English to refer to a cloth placed on furniture to guard against that oil, and the term entered common usage in the 19th century.

Initially, it meant 'a cloth placed on furniture to protect against Macassar oil'; over time the term broadened to refer more generally to any small protective covering for furniture.