'austroasiatic' originates from a combination of the prefix 'Austro-' (from Latin 'auster', meaning 'south') and 'Asiatic' (from Latin/Greek 'Asia'), forming a term for languages of southern/SE Asia.

'austroasiatic' first appeared in linguistic literature as the hyphenated form 'Austro-Asiatic' and later consolidated into the single word 'Austroasiatic' (or lowercase 'austroasiatic') in modern English classifications of language families.

Initially formed from elements meaning 'southern' + 'Asian', the term evolved from a geographic descriptor to a technical linguistic label denoting a specific family of languages.