'astrocytoma' originates from New Latin and Greek, specifically from the Greek elements 'astron' and 'kytos' and the suffix '-ōma', where 'astron' meant 'star', 'kytos' meant 'cell', and '-ōma' meant 'tumor'.

'astrocytoma' was coined as a Neo-Latin/medical formation combining 'astro-' (from Greek 'astron') + 'cytoma' (from Greek 'kytos' + '-ōma') in modern medical literature and was adopted into English with the same form.

Initially, it meant 'a tumor of star-shaped cells', and over time this specialized medical meaning has been retained as the term for tumors arising from astrocytes.