'antistrophize' originates from Greek, specifically the element 'antistrophos' (from 'anti-' + 'strophē'), where 'anti-' meant 'against' or 'opposite' and 'strophē' meant 'a turning'. The English verb was formed with the productive suffix '-ize'.

'antistrophize' was coined in English by combining the Greek components with the English/Latin-derived verbal suffix '-ize' (via Old French/Latin patterns), aligning the Greek root meaning with a verb-forming ending to yield the modern English verb.

Initially the root sense related to literal 'turning in the opposite direction'; over time the term has been used more specifically for the poetic/choral action of answering a strophe with an antistrophe.