'post-' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'post', where it meant 'after', and 'process' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'processus' (from 'procedere'), where 'pro-' meant 'forward' and 'cedere' meant 'to go.'

'process' changed from Late Latin 'processus' and Old French 'proces' into Middle English and eventually the modern English word 'process'; 'post' entered English from Latin 'post' (via Old English/Old French) and combined with 'process' to form the compound 'post-process' and its derived forms such as 'post-processed.'

Initially, 'process' meant 'to go forward' or 'a course of action', and 'post-' simply meant 'after'; over time the compound 'post-process' came to mean 'to perform further processing after an initial processing step,' a sense preserved in modern technical contexts.