'nonfiction' originates from English, specifically the compound of the prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non') and 'fiction' (from Latin 'fictio' from 'fingere'), where 'non-' meant 'not' and 'fingere' meant 'to shape' or 'to invent'.

'fiction' passed from Latin 'fictio' (from 'fingere') into Old French 'fiction' and then Middle English 'fiction'; the compound appeared in English as the hyphenated form 'non-fiction' in the 19th/early 20th century and later solidified as the single word 'nonfiction'.

Initially it simply meant 'not fiction' (a descriptive negation); over time it became a standard label for a literary genre of factual writing and for works that present factual accounts.