'loss-of-pleasure' is a compound formed from the English words 'loss' and 'pleasure'. 'loss' originates from Old English 'los' (also spelled 'los(s)') from Proto-Germanic *lausa, originally relating to 'destruction' or 'loss'; 'pleasure' originates from Old French 'plaisir' (from Latin 'placēre') where Latin 'placēre' meant 'to please'.

'loss' developed in Middle English from Old English 'los' and came to mean 'the fact or process of losing or being deprived of something'; 'pleasure' passed into English via Old French 'plaisir' (from Latin 'placēre') and became 'pleasure' in Middle English. The modern compound 'loss of pleasure' is simply the head noun 'loss' modified by the prepositional phrase 'of pleasure' and is used in general and clinical contexts (later often hyphenated as 'loss-of-pleasure').

Individually, 'loss' originally referred to destruction or deprivation and 'pleasure' to that which pleases; combined, the phrase initially describes the literal absence of pleasure and has become specialized in medicine/psychology to denote the clinical symptom of inability to experience pleasure.