'anticlassicism' originates from a modern English formation combining the Greek prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti', meaning 'against') with 'classicism' (from French 'classicisme', ultimately from Latin 'classicus'), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'classicus' meant 'of a class'.

'anticlassicism' developed as English critics and writers formed compound nouns in the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., 'anti-classical', French 'anti-classicisme'), and this usage crystallized into the noun 'anticlassicism' in modern English.

Initially used to denote opposition to classical artistic norms, the term has retained that core sense but has broadened to describe general stylistic refusals of 'classical' conventions across multiple arts and theoretical contexts.