'non-lymphotropic' originates from Modern English, formed by the negative prefix 'non-' and the medical compound 'lymphotropic', where 'non-' meant 'not' and 'lymphotropic' meant 'having an affinity for lymph (or lymphatic tissue)'.

'lymphotropic' is built from 'lymph' (from Latin/Old English roots for the lymphatic fluid/tissue) plus the suffix '-tropic' (from Greek 'tropos'/'tropikos' meaning 'turning' or 'affinity'), which entered medical New Latin/Modern English usage to indicate cellular or tissue tropism; 'non-' was then prefixed in Modern English to negate that property, producing 'non-lymphotropic'.

Initially, components referred broadly to 'lymph' and to 'turning/affinity'; over time the compound came to be used in medical and virological contexts to describe whether an agent shows biological preference (tropism) for lymphoid cells. 'Non-lymphotropic' therefore evolved to mean 'lacking such lymphoid tropism'.