'peristalsis' originates from New Latin and Greek: from Greek 'peristaltikos' (περισταλτικός), where 'peri-' meant 'around' and the root related to 'stállein' meant 'to contract' or 'to press together'.

'peristaltikos' in Greek passed into New Latin and New Latin medical usage as 'peristalsis' in the 17th–18th centuries, and the term entered English in modern scientific/medical contexts with essentially the same form.

Initially it referred to the action of 'contracting around' generally; over time it became the technical term for the specific wave-like muscular contractions in tubular organs that move contents along them.