'anisogamete' originates from New Latin/scientific coinage, formed from Greek elements: 'anisos' meaning 'unequal' and 'gamētēs' (from 'gamos') meaning 'spouse' or 'marriage', with the suffix '-ete' used to denote a type or individual.

'anisogamete' was created in scientific usage by combining the root from 'anisogamy' (Greek-derived) with the noun-forming element '-ete'; it entered biological terminology in late 19th to early 20th-century literature as a term for dissimilar gametes.

Initially it simply denoted an 'unequal gamete'; over time the term has remained a stable technical term in biology specifically referring to one of a pair of dissimilar gametes in anisogamous species.