'arsenide' originates from Modern Latin and Greek, specifically the word 'arsenicum' (from Greek 'arsenikon'), where the root 'arsen-' referred to the element arsenic and the suffix '-ide' originates from Greek 'eidos', meaning 'form'.

'arsenide' changed from 19th-century chemical naming practice using the suffix '-ide' to denote binary compounds (by analogy with names like 'oxide' and 'chloride') and eventually became the modern English term 'arsenide'.

Initially, it referred more generally to compounds of arsenic; over time it evolved to denote specifically binary compounds containing arsenic or the arsenide ion (As^3-).