'contraparallelogram' originates from English formation combining the prefix 'contra-' (from Latin 'contra', meaning 'against' or 'opposite') and 'parallelogram' (from Greek 'parallēlōgrammon').

'contraparallelogram' is a modern descriptive formation (akin to 'antiparallelogram'); the base element 'parallelogram' comes from Greek 'parallēlōgrammon' ('para-' beside + 'allēlōn' one another + 'grammon' drawing), which passed into Latin and then Middle English as 'parallelogram'. The contrasting prefix was later attached in English to denote the crossed/opposite form.

Initially the parts of the word simply signified an object 'opposite/against a parallelogram'; over time the compounded form came to denote specifically the self-intersecting (crossed) quadrilateral used in kinematics.