'pre-consonantal' originates from Latin, specifically the prefix 'prae' meaning 'before' and the word 'consonans' (from 'con-' + 'sonare'), where 'con-' meant 'together' and 'sonare' meant 'to sound.'

'pre-consonantal' changed from the Latin elements 'prae' and 'consonans' through the development of the prefix 'pre-' and the adjective 'consonant' in Middle English, eventually forming the modern compound adjective 'pre-consonantal'.

Initially, as a compound of 'pre-' + 'consonant' it literally conveyed 'before (the) consonant' (a compositional sense), but over time it has come to be used specifically in phonetics to mean 'occurring before a consonant sound'.