'autosome' originates from Greek, specifically the words 'autos' and 'soma', where 'autos' meant 'self' and 'soma' meant 'body'.

'autosome' was coined in scientific New Latin/Neo-Latin from Greek roots and was adopted into German and English scientific vocabulary in the late 19th to early 20th century to denote chromosomes other than sex chromosomes.

Initially literally 'self-body' from the Greek roots, the term evolved to its specialized biological meaning of 'a chromosome other than a sex chromosome'.