'polysporangiate' originates from New Latin/Greek elements: the prefix 'poly-' from Greek 'polús' meaning 'many' and 'sporangium' from Greek 'sporángion' meaning 'spore-vessel', combined with the English adjectival suffix '-ate'.

'polysporangiate' was formed in modern scientific English by combining 'poly-' with 'sporangiate' (itself from the Latinized 'sporangium', borrowed from Greek 'sporángion'); the term entered botanical vocabulary via Neo-Latin usage and then English descriptive terminology.

Initially it was coined to denote 'having many sporangia' in botanical contexts; this core meaning has remained stable with little semantic shift.