'audiovisual' originates from a modern English compound of 'audio' and 'visual'; 'audio' ultimately comes from Latin, specifically the verb 'audire', where 'aud-' meant 'to hear', and 'visual' comes from Latin 'vidēre' (via French), where 'vid-' meant 'to see'.

'audiovisual' developed in the early 20th century from the hyphenated form 'audio-visual' (combining the already-established elements 'audio' and 'visual') and later commonly appears as the closed compound 'audiovisual' in modern English.

Initially it referred to the combined use of sound and vision (especially in teaching and presentations); over time the term has retained this core meaning and also come to denote the equipment or recorded materials that provide both sound and images.