'terrigenous' originates from Latin and Greek elements: from Latin 'terra' (where 'terra' meant 'earth') combined with Greek-derived suffix '-genous'/'-genēs' (where '-genēs' meant 'born' or 'produced').

'terrigenous' developed via New Latin/Late Latin formation such as 'terrigenus' ('terra' + '-genus'), and this formation was adopted into scientific English as 'terrigenous'.

Initially it carried the sense 'born of the earth' or 'originating from the land', and over time it became specialized in scientific usage to mean 'derived from or composed of material from land (especially sediments)'.