'neuroglial' originates from Greek, specifically the words 'neuron' and 'glia', where 'neuron' meant 'nerve' and 'glia' meant 'glue'.

'neuroglial' formed from New Latin/modern scientific coinage 'neuroglia' (coined in the 19th century to denote 'nerve glue') and the adjectival suffix '-al' to yield the English adjective 'neuroglial'.

Initially it referred to the idea of 'nerve glue' (the tissue thought to support neurons); over time it came to denote the specific cells (glia) and adjectivally anything relating to those cells.