'autoaspiration' is a modern compound formed from the Greek prefix 'auto-' and the English word 'aspiration' (from Latin 'aspiratio'), where 'auto-' meant 'self' and 'aspiratio' (from Latin 'aspirare') meant 'to breathe upon' or 'to breathe'.

'aspiration' changed from Latin 'aspiratio' to Old French 'aspirer' and Middle English 'aspiracioun', eventually becoming the modern English word 'aspiration'. The prefix 'auto-' comes from Greek 'autos' and entered English scientific/medical usage via New Latin and modern coinage, producing compounds such as 'autoaspiration'.

Initially, Latin 'aspiratio' referred broadly to an act of breathing or breathing upon; over time 'aspiration' came to include the sense of inhaling (medical) and the phonetic sense of a breathy release on consonants. 'Autoaspiration' therefore developed to mean 'self-caused inhalation' or 'aspiration that occurs automatically'.