'anti-automation' originates from Modern English as a compound of the prefix 'anti-' and the noun 'automation'; 'anti-' ultimately comes from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against' (via Latin/French usages), and 'automation' derives from Greek 'automatos' meaning 'self-moving' through Modern English formation.

'automation' was created in English in the mid-20th century (around the 1940s) from 'automatic' + the nominalizing suffix '-ion'; 'automatic' itself comes from Greek 'automatos' and passed through Latin and French into English. The combining prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti') has long been used in English to form compounds meaning 'against' or 'opposed to', and in Modern English these elements combined to form the compound 'anti-automation'.

Initially, the elements meant 'against' (anti-) and 'self-moving' or 'self-acting' (automation/automatos); over time their compound usage came to mean specifically 'opposition to the use or spread of automated systems', focusing on socio-economic and policy resistance rather than the literal 'against self-moving'.