'methoxybenzoyl' originates from modern chemical English, formed by combining 'methoxy' and 'benzoyl', where 'methoxy' originally meant 'a methoxy group (–OCH3)' (from 'methyl' + 'oxy') and 'benzoyl' meant 'the acyl radical derived from benzoic acid (–C6H4CO–)'.

'methoxy' is built from 'methyl' (from Neo-Latin/Greek roots for 'methane' components) + 'oxy' (from Greek 'oxys' meaning 'acid' or 'sharp', later used to denote oxygen-containing groups); 'benzoyl' comes via French and Medieval Latin from 'benzoic' (from 'benzoin', a resin name ultimately from Arabic/Oriental trade names) and was adapted into English chemical nomenclature as 'benzoyl' to name the acyl radical. These elements were combined in modern chemical nomenclature to form 'methoxybenzoyl'.

Initially the component parts named separate chemical notions ('methoxy' = –OCH3, 'benzoyl' = benzoyl acyl group); over time the concatenated form 'methoxybenzoyl' came to denote specifically a benzoyl group bearing a methoxy substituent at a defined ring position.