'autopolyploid' is a modern scientific compound formed from the combining forms 'auto-' (from Greek 'autos' meaning 'self'), 'poly-' (from Greek 'polus' meaning 'many'), and the suffix '-ploid' (from Neo-Latin/Greek combining use meaning 'fold' or 'form' in reference to chromosome sets).

'autopolyploid' arose in 20th-century cytogenetic literature as scientists distinguished types of polyploidy; it was formed by combining classical Greek-derived prefixes with the biological suffix '-ploid' to denote self-derived multiple chromosome sets.

The term initially described organisms with chromosome duplication within a single species; over time it retained that core meaning but became more precisely used in genetics and cytology to specify the origin (self-duplication) of polyploidy.