'predicamental' originates from Late Latin 'praedicamentalis', ultimately from Latin 'praedicamentum' (itself used to translate Greek 'kategoria'), where the elements relate to the idea of a 'predicate' or 'something declared'.

'praedicamentum' in Late Latin/Medieval Latin was adopted into Old French as 'prédicament' and then into Middle English as 'predicament'; the adjective form was later formed in English as 'predicamental' (modeled on adjective-forming -al).

Initially connected to the technical philosophical sense of a 'category' or 'predicate' (as in Aristotle's categories), the term evolved in English to mean a 'difficult or awkward situation'; 'predicamental' now carries the sense 'of or relating to a predicament'.