'antigeotropically' originates from Greek elements, specifically 'anti-' and 'geotropism', where 'anti-' meant 'against', 'geō' (geo-) meant 'earth', and 'tropos' meant 'turn'.

'antigeotropically' developed from the adjective 'antigeotropic' (formed in modern scientific English from 'anti-' + 'geotropic') and the adverbial suffix '-ally' (from Old English/Old Germanic suffixes meaning 'having the nature of'), resulting in the modern English adverb.

Initially the components signified 'against earth-turning' in a literal sense; over time the formed term came to be used in scientific contexts to mean 'in a manner opposite to geotropism' (describing growth or movement away from gravity).