In Ancient Greek texts, including the Hippocratic Corpus, Timaeus, and others, the term  (anaisthēsíā, "without sensation") is attested; from  (an-, "without") and  (aisthēsis, "sensation").
In 1679, Steven Blankaart publishes Lexicon medicum graeco-latinum with the Latin term anaisthesia. In 1684, an English translation appears titled A Physical Dictionary, with anaisthesia defined as "defect of sensation, as in paralytic and blasted persons". Subsequently, the term and variant spellings like anæsthesia are used in medical literature signifying "insensibility".
In 1846, in a letter, Oliver Wendell Holmes proposes the term anesthesia to be used for the state induced by an agent and anesthetic for the agent itself. Holmes motivates this with earlier uses of anesthesia in medical literature to mean "insensibility", particularly to "objects of touch".