'deboss' is formed from the prefix 'de-' (from Latin, meaning 'down' or 'off') combined with 'boss' (from Anglo-French/Old French 'bosse', meaning 'a lump' or 'protuberance'), producing the sense of making a surface depressed.

'boss' comes from Old French 'bosse' meaning 'lump' or 'swelling'; English 'emboss' developed via French verbal forms (e.g., 'embosser') to mean 'to raise into a boss'; 'deboss' arose in modern craft/printing use as the opposite process (to press into rather than raise) and 'debossing' followed as the noun/gerund.

Originally related words described a raised ornament or lump ('boss'); over time compounds with 'emboss' and 'deboss' specialized in printing and finishing vocabulary, with 'deboss' taking the specific modern meaning 'to create a recessed impression' rather than a raised one.