'cataphora' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'kataphora', where 'kata-' meant 'down, against' and the element related to 'phorein' meant 'to carry' (so 'kataphora' carried the sense of 'a carrying toward/down').

'cataphora' passed into scholarly Latin/Neo-Latin and then into English usage as a technical linguistic term (via 19th–20th century linguistic writing) from Greek 'kataphora'.

Initially connected with the literal idea of 'carrying toward' or 'a carrying down', it evolved in technical linguistic usage to mean specifically a 'forward reference' in discourse.