'atomistics' originates from modern English usage (formed in the 19th century from related adjectives and nouns), ultimately based on the Greek root 'atomos', where 'a-' meant 'not' and 'tomos' meant 'cut' or 'divisible'.

'atomistics' developed from French and English adjectival and noun forms such as French 'atomistique' and English 'atomistic'/'atomism', which themselves trace back to Late Latin and Ancient Greek 'atomos'; these forms gradually produced the English noun 'atomistics' to denote the study or doctrine.

Initially the root 'atomos' meant 'indivisible' (the basic philosophical idea of an indivisible particle); over time the sense evolved into a technical and scholarly term for the doctrine or scientific study of atoms, now used to denote either the philosophical doctrine or the scientific field.