'arrenotoky' originates from Ancient Greek, specifically the elements 'arrhen' and 'tokos', where 'arrhen' meant 'male' and 'tokos' meant 'birth'.

'arrenotoky' changed from the Greek compound (via New Latin forms such as 'arrhenotokia' or 'arrhenotokos') and entered modern scientific English as the noun 'arrenotoky'.

Initially it meant 'male birth' (literal sense), and over time it came to denote the biological phenomenon of males arising from unfertilized eggs (a type of parthenogenesis).