'nonpulmonary' originates from English, specifically formed by the negative prefix 'non-' and the adjective 'pulmonary', where 'non-' meant 'not' and 'pulmonary' came from Latin 'pulmonarius' meaning 'of the lungs'.

'pulmonary' comes from Latin 'pulmo, pulmon-' (meaning 'lung') and the Late Latin/Medieval Latin adjective 'pulmonarius'; the modern compound 'nonpulmonary' was formed in Modern English (chiefly 19th–20th century) by adding the prefix 'non-' to 'pulmonary' for medical usage.

Initially 'pulmonary' meant 'of the lungs'; 'nonpulmonary' was coined to mean 'not of the lungs' and has retained this negative/contrastive meaning in clinical and scientific contexts.