The word participle comes from classical Latin participium, from particeps 'sharing, participation', because it shares certain properties of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The Latin grammatical term is a calque of the Greek grammatical term u????? : metoche, 'participation, participle'.

The linguistic term, past participle, was coined circa 1798 based on its participial form, whose morphology equates to the regular form of