'autoinoculation' originates from combining the Greek prefix 'auto-' (from Greek 'autos') meaning 'self' and the word 'inoculation' (from Latin 'inoculatio', from 'inoculare') meaning 'to graft in or implant'.

'inoculate' comes from Latin 'inoculare' ('to graft in'), passed into Medieval/Modern Latin and English as 'inoculation'; the medical compound 'autoinoculation' was formed in modern English by prefixing Greek 'auto-' to 'inoculation' to denote 'self-' action, appearing in medical literature in the late 19th to 20th century.

Initially related to the agricultural/medical sense of 'grafting in' or deliberately implanting material; over time in medical usage it came to mean the transfer (sometimes accidental) of infectious agents within the same individual's body—'self-infection'—and also deliberate self‑inoculation in experimental or clinical contexts.