'anti-agglutinative' originates from Greek 'anti' (prefix meaning 'against') combined with Latin-derived 'agglutinative' (from Latin 'adglutinare'/'gluten' where 'gluten' meant 'glue' and 'ad-' indicated 'to/toward').

'agglutinative' developed from Latin 'adglutinare' (to glue to) and Late Latin forms such as 'agglutinativus', passed into modern English as 'agglutinative'; the compound 'anti-agglutinative' is formed in modern English by adding the Greek-derived prefix 'anti-' to this adjective.

Initially the root sense concerned 'to glue' or 'to stick together'; over time 'agglutinate/agglutinative' came to be used in technical senses (e.g., medical/clumping, linguistic morphology), and 'anti-agglutinative' came to mean 'against or preventing such sticking or clumping' in those contexts.