'bacteriocyte' originates from New Latin/Neo-Latin combining form 'bacterio-' (from 'bacterium') and the Greek-derived suffix '-cyte' (from 'kytos'), where 'bacterium' ultimately traces to Greek 'bakterion' meaning 'small staff (rod)' and 'kytos' meant 'cell'.

'bacteriocyte' was formed in modern scientific English by combining the Neo-Latin/Greek elements 'bacterio-' + '-cyte'. 'Bacterium' entered scientific Latin from Greek 'bakterion', and '-cyte' comes via New Latin from Greek 'kytos', together yielding the modern compound 'bacteriocyte'.

Initially the roots referred separately to 'bacterium' (a rod or microbe) and 'cell'; over time the compound came to mean specifically 'a host cell that houses endosymbiotic bacteria'.