The exact origin of makurakotoba remains contested to this day, though both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, two of Japan's earliest chronicles, use it as a literary technique.
In fact, the 17th-century Buddhist priest and scholar Keichū wrote that "if one says jokotoba, one speaks of long makurakotoba" in his Man'yō-taishōki.
Japanese scholar Shinobu Orikuchi also echoes this statement, claiming that makurakotoba are jokotoba that have been compressed.
Some historical makurakotoba have developed into the usual words for their meaning in modern Japanese, replacing the terms they originally alluded to.
For example, niwa tsu tori (庭つ鳥, bird of the garden) was in classical Japanese a makurakotoba for kake (鶏, chicken).