'hyperoxemia' originates from Modern New Latin/Greek combining forms: Greek 'hyper-' (ὑπέρ) meaning 'over, excessive', Greek 'oxys' (ὀξύς) as the basis for 'oxygen', and Greek 'haima' (αἷμα) meaning 'blood'.

'hyperoxemia' was coined in modern medical English by combining the prefix 'hyper-' with the compound element 'oxemia'; a British spelling variant 'hyperoxaemia' also appeared in medical literature as physiological terminology developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The component roots originally meant 'over' and 'blood', and together the coined term came to denote specifically 'an excess of oxygen in the blood' in modern medical usage.