'platykurtosis' originates from Greek, specifically the combining form 'platy-' from 'platys' meaning 'broad, flat', combined with 'kurtosis' (from Greek 'kurtos').

'platykurtosis' was formed in 20th-century statistical terminology by joining the Greek-derived prefix 'platy-' and the established statistical term 'kurtosis' (coined in the early 20th century by statisticians such as Karl Pearson), producing the compound meaning 'flat kurtosis'.

Initially used to describe distributions that are 'broad' or 'flat' relative to a normal curve, it has remained specialized to mean 'negative excess kurtosis' (i.e., flatter-than-normal distributions with lighter tails).