'asystole' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'asystolía', where the prefix 'a-' meant 'without' and 'systolē' meant 'contraction'.

'asystole' came from the Greek medical term 'asystolía' and entered medical Latin and later English usage (borrowed into English in the 19th century) as the modern term 'asystole'.

Initially it meant 'absence of contraction' in a literal sense; over time it has become the established medical term for the absence of cardiac electrical activity/ventricular contraction.