'non-antennate' is formed from the negative prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non', meaning 'not') attached to 'antennate', which comes from 'antenna' (Latin 'antenna', originally 'sail-yard').

'antennate' developed in scientific/English usage from Latin 'antenna' via New Latin and 19th-century zoological terminology; 'non-' was prefixed in English to create 'non-antennate' to denote absence of antennae.

Initially, 'antennate' described organisms 'having antennae'; with the negative prefix, 'non-antennate' has come to mean 'not having antennae' and is used to describe that absence in biological descriptions.