'autecology' originates from Greek elements, specifically 'autos', 'oikos' and 'logos', where 'autos' meant 'self', 'oikos' meant 'house' (used for 'environment' or 'habitat'), and 'logos' meant 'study' or 'discourse'.

'autecology' was coined as a technical compound in scientific usage (via Neo-Latin/Modern Greek formation) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by combining the prefix 'auto-' with 'ecology'; it entered English as a specialized ecological term.

Initially used to denote the study of an individual organism or the ecology of a single species ('self'-focused ecological study); it has retained that core sense and is now primarily used to contrast single-species studies with community-level (synecological) studies.