'autophagous' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'autophagos', where 'auto-' meant 'self' and 'phagein' meant 'to eat'.

'autophagous' entered scientific English via New Latin/modern coinage based on Greek 'autophagos' and the noun 'autophagy' (from Greek roots) and was adopted into biological terminology in the 19th–20th century.

Initially it literally meant 'self-eating'; over time it came to be used especially for cellular self-digestion (autophagy) and for related figurative senses.