'arylamine' is a modern chemical formation combining the element 'aryl' and 'amine'. 'Aryl' was coined in organic chemistry as a contraction of 'aromatic' + the suffix '-yl' (denoting a radical), while 'amine' comes from French 'amine', ultimately related to 'ammonia'.

'arylamine' emerged in late 19th to early 20th-century chemical nomenclature by joining 'aryl' (a 19th-century term formed from 'aromatic' + '-yl') and 'amine' (a term derived from the name 'ammonia' used for nitrogen-containing bases).

Initially, 'amine' referred broadly to derivatives of ammonia; over time 'arylamine' came to denote specifically those amines in which the amino group is attached to an aryl (aromatic) ring.