'aporiae' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'aporia' (ἀπορία), where the prefix 'a-' meant 'not' or 'without' and the root 'poros' meant 'passage' or 'way'.

'aporia' was used in ancient Greek to denote 'impassability' or 'difficulty of passage'; it was adopted into scholarly Latin and later into English philosophical and rhetorical vocabulary, with the plural form 'aporiae' following classical pluralization in academic contexts.

Initially it meant 'lack of passage' or 'impassability', but over time it evolved into the sense of 'perplexity' or 'puzzling difficulty' and also came to denote a rhetorical expression of doubt.