'anti-productionist' originates from Modern English, specifically formed from the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against') and 'productionist' (from the noun 'production' + English agentive suffix '-ist'), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'production' relates to 'producing' or 'bringing forth'.

'production' traces back to Latin 'producere' ('pro-' meaning 'forth' + 'ducere' meaning 'to lead'), passed into Old French as 'produire' and into Middle English as 'produce'; the agentive suffix '-ist' and the modern political/ideological sense yielded 'productionist' in English, and the prefix 'anti-' was attached in modern usage to form the compound 'anti-productionist' (a late 20th-century coinage in contexts discussing industrial policy and environmental critique).

Initially, components referred literally to 'against producing' or 'against bringing forth'; over time the compound's use has come to mean opposition to an ideological or policy emphasis on production and industrial growth rather than a purely literal sense.