'cholinomimetic' originates from Modern formation combining 'choline' and 'mimetic'; 'choline' ultimately from Greek 'chole' (meaning 'bile') and 'mimetic' from Greek 'mimētikos' (meaning 'imitating').

'choline' was coined in modern chemistry from Greek 'chole' and later formed the element 'choline'; 'mimetic' comes from Greek 'mimētikos' via Latin/modern scientific usage; these elements were combined in the 20th-century scientific vocabulary to form 'cholinomimetic'.

Initially the components meant 'related to bile' ('choline') and 'imitating' ('mimetic'), and the compound came to mean 'imitating choline' specifically in the pharmacological sense — now used as 'mimicking acetylcholine's action' or 'stimulating cholinergic receptors'.