'sex-typicality' originates from modern English, formed by combining the noun 'sex' (from Latin 'sexus') and the noun 'typicality' (from 'typical' + the suffix '-ity', where 'typical' ultimately derives from Greek 'typos').

'sex' changed from Latin 'sexus' into Old French 'sexe' and then into Middle English 'sex'; 'typicality' developed from Greek 'typos' to Latin and medieval forms (via Latin 'typicus' and Late Latin/Old French influences) to English 'typical' and later the abstract noun 'typicality'; these elements were combined in modern English usage (especially 20th-century psychology and social science) to form 'sex-typicality'.

Initially, 'sex' referred to biological category and 'typicality' to the state of being characteristic of a type; over time their compound came to denote specifically the extent to which traits conform to expectations for a given sex in social and psychological contexts.