'antihierarchy' originates from Greek elements: the prefix 'anti-' (Greek 'anti') and the word 'hierarchia' (Greek 'hierarchia'), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'hierarchia' meant 'rule (originally of priests/sacred rulers)'.

'hierarchia' passed into Late Latin as 'hierarchia', into Old French as 'hierarchie', then into Middle English as 'hierarchy'; the modern English compound 'antihierarchy' is formed by attaching the Greek-derived prefix 'anti-' to this inherited word, yielding 'antihierarchy' and its plural 'antihierarchies'.

Originally, 'hierarchia' referred specifically to a sacred or priestly rule, but over time 'hierarchy' came to mean any system of ranked authority; the compound 'antihierarchy' therefore originally meant 'against (sacred) rule' and evolved to mean broadly 'against ranked authority' in contemporary usage.