'arracacia' originates from Spanish (or Portuguese), specifically the word 'arracacha', where the original indigenous word (possibly from Quechua or another Andean language) referred to the starchy root vegetable.

'arracacia' was adopted into botanical Latin as the genus name 'Arracacia' from Spanish 'arracacha' (itself borrowed from an indigenous South American language), and was Latinized by botanists to form the modern scientific name.

Initially, it meant 'the local name for a starchy Andean root vegetable', but over time the form was Latinized and came to be used also as the scientific genus name 'Arracacia'.