'hypotactic' originates from New Latin, specifically the word 'hypotacticus', where the prefix 'hypo-' meant 'under' and 'taxis' meant 'arrangement'.

'hypotactic' changed from the Greek word 'hypotaxis' (from 'hypo-' + 'taxis') into Late Latin/New Latin 'hypotacticus', and eventually entered English as 'hypotactic'.

Initially it meant 'an arrangement under' or 'subordinate arrangement', and over time it came to refer specifically to grammatical subordination (use of subordinate clauses) in modern linguistics.