'bakeware' originates from English as a compound of 'bake' and 'ware'; 'bake' meant 'to cook by dry heat' and 'ware' meant 'articles, goods or objects of a particular type'.

'bake' comes from Old English 'bacan' (to cook by heat), which became Middle English 'baken' and modern English 'bake'; 'ware' comes from Old English 'waru' (goods, commodities) and Middle English 'ware'; the compound 'bakeware' is a modern English formation (used chiefly from the 19th–20th century onward) combining these elements to denote cookware for baking.

The roots originally referred separately to the action 'to bake' and to 'objects/goods'; combined, they came to mean specifically 'objects used for baking' rather than a general sense of goods or the act of baking alone.