'oxygen-reducing' is a modern English compound formed from 'oxygen' + present participle 'reducing'. 'Oxygen' originates from French 'oxygène' (coined in the 18th century), where the Greek roots 'oxys' meant 'acid' and 'gen' (from 'genes') meant 'producer'. 'Reduce' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'reducere', where 're-' meant 'back' and 'ducere' meant 'to lead'.

'oxygen' was coined in French as 'oxygène' and derived from Greek elements 'oxys' + 'genes'; it entered scientific English in the late 18th century to name the element. 'Reduce' passed from Latin 'reducere' into Old French (e.g. 'reduire') and Middle English (e.g. 'reduce'), and the present participle 'reducing' developed according to regular English verbal morphology; the compound 'oxygen-reducing' is a descriptive modern formation combining the noun and participle.

The element name 'oxygen' originally had the literal sense 'acid-producer' in its coining but came to denote the chemical element O; 'reduce' originally meant 'lead back' in Latin and broadened in English to mean 'make smaller' or 'remove (e.g. oxygen)', so 'oxygen-reducing' now specifically denotes reducing or removing oxygen rather than the older senses.