'anticatholic' originates from a combination of the Greek prefix 'anti-' and the adjective 'Catholic'. 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti') meant 'against', and 'Catholic' comes (via Latin) from Greek 'katholikos' meaning 'general, universal'.

'Catholic' changed from Greek 'katholikos' to Latin 'catholicus' and later entered English (via ecclesiastical and medieval Latin and Old French) as 'Catholic'. The prefix 'anti-' was borrowed from Greek into English as a productive prefix, and the compound 'anti-Catholic' (later written also as 'anticatholic') developed in modern English to denote opposition to the Catholic Church.

Initially the elements meant 'against' + 'universal' (in the sense of the universal church), but over time the compound came to mean specifically 'opposed to the Roman Catholic Church or its adherents'.