'strikebreaking' is a compound formed from 'strike' + 'breaking'. 'strike' originates from Old English, from the verb 'strīcan' (to stroke, move swiftly; later to strike), and 'breaking' comes from Old English 'brecan' (to break).

'strike' (Old English 'strīcan') evolved in sense from general motion or striking to a specific sense of a labor stoppage in the 19th century; 'breaking' (from Old English 'brecan') gave the agentive/action sense; the compound 'strikebreaking' developed in the late 19th century with the rise of organized labor and employer responses, producing the modern term.

Initially the components referred to 'strike' (an act of striking/moving/attacking) and 'breaking' (to shatter or end). Over time the compound came to mean specifically 'the act of ending or undermining a labor strike,' a specialized labor-relations sense.