'astigmatoscopy' originates from New Latin/Greek, specifically from the Greek elements 'a-' (meaning 'not') + 'stigma' (meaning 'point') combined with the diagnostic suffix '-oscopy' from Greek 'skopein' (meaning 'to look').

'astigmatoscopy' was formed in modern medical English by combining the existing medical noun 'astigmatism' with the suffix '-oscopy'; the term emerged as a technical coinage in late 19th to early 20th century ophthalmic literature and eventually stabilized as the modern English 'astigmatoscopy'.

Initially, the components conveyed the idea of 'inspection related to the absence of a point (focus)', but over time the compound came to mean specifically 'an examination for detecting or measuring astigmatism'.