'non-tissual' originates from English combining the prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non', meaning 'not') and 'tissual', derived from 'tissue' (Old French 'tissu', from Latin root related to 'texere' meaning 'to weave'), where 'non-' meant 'not' and the root for 'tissue' originally referred to something woven.

'tissue' changed from Old French 'tissu' (past participle of tisser, 'to weave') and later came to mean biological 'tissue' in modern English; 'tissual' is an adjectival formation from 'tissue', and 'non-' was prefixed in modern English to create 'non-tissual'.

Initially related to woven fabric ('tissue' as a woven thing), the term evolved to denote biological tissue; 'non-tissual' therefore came to mean 'not of or relating to biological tissue'.