'anticlimactical' originates from English, specifically from the adjective 'anticlimactic', where the prefix 'anti-' meant 'against' and the Greek root 'klimax' (κλιμαξ) meant 'ladder' or 'stair' (by extension 'summit' or 'climax').

'anticlimactic' developed from 'anticlimax' (late 17th century), which combined 'anti-' with the Greek 'klimax'; over time the adjective form 'anticlimactic' emerged and later the variant 'anticlimactical' appeared in English as an adjectival extension.

Initially the element 'anticlimax' referred literally to a rhetorical descent from a high to a low point; over time it came to mean a disappointing end or effect, and 'anticlimactical' now conveys 'producing an anticlimax' or 'disappointingly lacking climax'.