'apium' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'apium', where it meant 'celery' or a similar plant.

'apium' was used in classical Latin for celery-like plants and was adopted into botanical (New Latin) usage as the genus name Apium by Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century.

Initially, it referred generally to a celery-like plant in Latin; over time it became a scientific genus name referring to a group of related species.