'lipase-inhibiting' is a modern English compound formed from 'lipase' + the present participle form of 'inhibit'. 'Lipase' itself is formed with the suffix '-ase' meaning an enzyme added to a root from Greek; 'inhibit' comes from Latin 'inhibēre' meaning 'to hold back'.

'lipase' derives from modern biochemical naming (late 19th century) using the suffix '-ase' (from French/modern scientific coinage) attached to Greek 'lipos' ('fat'), producing 'lipase'; 'inhibit' comes via Old French/Latin from Latin 'inhibēre' and entered Middle/Modern English as 'inhibit', and the compound 'lipase-inhibiting' is formed in contemporary scientific English by combining them.

Initially the components referred separately to 'fat' (lipos) and 'to hold back' (inhibēre); over time the combined form came to mean specifically 'reducing or blocking the activity of the enzyme lipase' in biochemical contexts.