'earthquake-resistant' originates from English, specifically the compound of 'earthquake' and 'resistant', where 'earthquake' is itself a compound of 'earth' + 'quake' meaning 'shaking of the earth', and 'resistant' comes from Latin 'resistere' meaning 'to stand back' (via Old French/Latin-derived adjective formation with the suffix '-ant').

'earthquake' developed in Early Modern English from the combination of 'earth' (Old English 'eorðe') and 'quake' (Old English root related to 'quaken'), while 'resistant' entered English via Old French from Latin 'resistere'; the compound adjective 'earthquake-resistant' emerged in modern usage (notably 20th century) with the rise of seismic engineering terminology.

Initially, the parts meant 'shaking of the earth' (earthquake) and 'to stand back or oppose' (resist); over time the compound came to mean 'able to withstand or oppose the forces of an earthquake', a technical/engineering descriptor.