'anti-railway' originates from the Greek prefix 'anti-' meaning 'against' combined with the English compound 'railway' (itself from 'rail' + 'way'), where 'rail' historically referred to a bar or track and 'way' meant a route or road.

'railway' formed in English in the early 19th century to name tracks and systems for rail transport, drawing on 'rail' (from Old French reille / Late Latin 'regula' for a bar or straight piece) and Old English 'weg' ('way'); later, the productive prefix 'anti-' (from Greek) was attached to form 'anti-railway' to describe opposition to such systems.

Initially the components meant 'against' (anti-) and 'track/route' (rail + way); over time the compound came to mean specifically 'opposed to rail transport or railway projects' in political and social contexts.