'archiphonemic' originates from Greek elements: 'arkhi-' (meaning 'chief' or 'principal') and 'phonē' (meaning 'sound' or 'voice'), combined with the English suffix '-eme'/'-emic' used in linguistics to form terms for units and their adjectival forms.

'archiphoneme' was coined in 20th-century phonological literature by combining 'archi-' + 'phoneme' to name an abstract, neutralized unit; the adjective 'archiphonemic' developed from that noun to describe properties or analyses involving archiphonemes.

Initially built from elements meaning 'principal sound', the term came to refer specifically to the linguists' concept of a context-independent, neutralized phonological unit; the modern meaning is this technical phonological sense.