'aphid-eating' originates from English, specifically the compound of 'aphid' and 'eat', where 'aphid' comes from Greek 'aphis' meaning 'plant louse' and 'eat' comes from Old English 'etan' meaning 'to eat'.

'aphid' came into English from Greek 'aphis' (via Latin and later scientific usage), and 'eat' developed from Old English 'etan'; the compound 'aphid-eating' is a modern English formation combining the noun and the present participle.

Initially, the constituent parts referred separately to 'plant louse' and 'to eat'; the compound has simply come to mean 'feeding on aphids' with no major shift in core sense.