'antitintinnabularian' originates as an English coinage combining the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'ἀντί', meaning 'against') with the noun 'tintinnabulation' (from Latin 'tintinnabulum'), where 'tintinnabulum' meant 'bell'.

'tintinnabulation' developed in English from Latin 'tintinnabulum' (meaning 'bell'), used poetically in English from the 17th–19th centuries; 'antitintinnabularian' is a later playful/derivative formation that attaches 'anti-' to that base to denote opposition to bell-sounds.

Initially coined to mean 'someone opposed to the sound of bells', the word has remained a rare, humorous or rhetorical term with that same basic meaning.