'anti-life' originates from the Greek prefix 'anti-' and the Old English noun 'līf' (life), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'līf' meant 'life' or 'existence'.

'anti-' entered English via Latin and French as a productive combining form meaning 'against'; 'life' comes from Old English 'līf', from Proto-Germanic '*lībą'. The compound 'anti-life' is a modern English formation combining these elements, used especially in 20th-century and later texts (including speculative fiction).

Initially the elements meant simply 'against' + 'life'; over time the compound has been used both literally (opposed to biological life) and figuratively (a principle or ideology destructive of what is considered 'life'), and it gained specialized fictional meanings (e.g., 'Anti-Life Equation').