'artotyrite' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'Αρτοτυρίται' (transliterated 'Artotyritai'), where 'artos' meant 'bread' and 'tyros' meant 'cheese'.

'artotyrite' changed from the Greek 'Artotyritai' into Late Latin/Medieval Latin forms such as 'Artotyritae' and was later adopted into English as 'artotyrite' in ecclesiastical and scholarly writings.

Initially, it meant 'people who offer bread and cheese' (a descriptive name for the group); over time it became a fixed label for the sect and, in patristic literature, a term denoting a heretical group.