'antinucleon' originates from Modern English, specifically the combining elements 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti-') and 'nucleon' (from New Latin 'nucleus'), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'nucleus' meant 'kernel' or 'core'.

'antinucleon' was coined in mid-20th-century physics by combining the prefix 'anti-' with 'nucleon' to name the antiparticles corresponding to nucleons; the term entered scientific literature as particle physics developed.

Initially formed simply as 'the opposite of a nucleon', the term became specialized to mean 'the antiparticle of a nucleon' in the context of particle physics.