'astatize' originates from Greek 'astatos' (ἀστάτος), where the prefix 'a-' meant 'not' and 'statos' meant 'standing' or 'fixed'; the English verb was later formed with the productive suffix '-ize'.

'astatos' (Greek) entered scientific Latin/modern scientific vocabulary as 'astatic' in the 19th century to describe devices 'not fixed' in magnetization; the verb 'astatize' was then created in English by adding '-ize' to that adjectival stem.

Initially associated with the descriptive sense 'not fixed' or 'unstable' (ἀστάτος); in modern technical use it evolved to mean the specific process 'to make a device astatic' (i.e., to reduce magnetic bias).