'antisaloonist' originates from the combining of Greek 'anti' (meaning 'against'), French 'salon' via English 'saloon' (originally from Italian 'salone', an augmentative of 'sala', meaning 'room' or 'hall'), and the English agentive suffix '-ist' (from Greek/Latin via French), where 'anti-' meant 'against' and 'saloon' meant 'large room or public room.'

'antisaloonist' developed in English in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the phrase 'anti-saloon' (an adjective describing opposition to saloons) combined with the agentive suffix '-ist' to name individuals active in the temperance/prohibition movement; the compound became used as the noun 'antisaloonist.'

Initially it meant simply 'someone opposed to saloons'; over time the term came to denote specifically activists or supporters of the organized temperance/prohibition movement and is now largely historical or rare in modern usage (modern equivalents include 'prohibitionist' or 'temperance activist').