'autotransplantation' originates from Modern English, formed by combining the prefix 'auto-' (from Greek 'autos') meaning 'self' and 'transplantation' (from Latin roots, see below); here 'auto-' meant 'self'.

'transplantation' changed from Latin 'transplantare' ('trans-' meaning 'across' + 'plantare' meaning 'to plant') to Old French 'transplanter' and then entered Middle English as 'transplant', eventually becoming the modern English noun 'transplantation'. 'autotransplantation' was created in modern medical English by adding 'auto-' to 'transplantation'.

Initially related to the literal sense of 'planting across' (moving and settling living tissue or plants), but over time in medicine it evolved into the technical sense of moving tissue or organs within the same individual — the current meaning.