'antimeson' originates from Modern English, formed by the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti-' meaning 'against' or 'opposite') and 'meson' (coined in the 20th century from Greek 'mesos' meaning 'middle').

'meson' was coined in the early 20th century (notably by physicists such as Hideki Yukawa) from Greek 'mesos' ('middle'), and 'antimeson' arose later in 20th-century physics as a compound of 'anti-' + 'meson' to denote the meson's antiparticle.

Initially, the components meant 'against/opposite' (anti-) and 'middle' (meson); combined in physics to mean 'the particle opposite to a meson', and this technical meaning has been maintained.