'arenicolite' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'arenicola', where 'arena' meant 'sand' and 'incola' meant 'inhabitant' (with the scientific suffix '-ites'/'-ite' used in fossil names).

'arenicola' was used in Neo-Latin to denote a 'sand-dweller'; in ichnotaxonomy the form 'Arenicolites' (with the -ites suffix common in fossil genera) came into use, and the modern English term 'arenicolite' developed from that scientific usage.

Initially it meant 'sand-dweller' (an organism that lives in sand), but over time it has come to denote specifically 'a trace fossil of vertical burrows in sand' in geological contexts.