'apocarpous' originates from New Latin, ultimately from Greek 'apokarpous', where 'apo-' meant 'away from' and 'karpos' meant 'fruit'.

'apocarpous' entered botanical English from New Latin/Modern Latin 'apocarpus', which in turn comes from Greek 'apokarpous' (ἀπο- + καρπός); the term was adopted into English usage in botanical descriptions in the 18th–19th centuries.

Initially it literally meant 'away-from-fruit' (a composite of elements meaning 'away' + 'fruit'), and over time it came to be used specifically in botany to mean 'having free (unfused) carpels'.