'ASD-associated' originates from modern English, specifically the initialism 'ASD' (from 'Autism Spectrum Disorder') combined with the adjective 'associated', where 'ASD' meant 'Autism Spectrum Disorder' and 'associate' (from Latin 'associare') meant 'to join or connect'.

'associated' changed from Latin word 'associare' through Old French 'associer' and Middle English 'associate' and eventually became the modern English adjective 'associated'. The initialism 'ASD' is a late 20th-century English clinical abbreviation formed from the phrase 'Autism Spectrum Disorder'.

Initially, 'associate' meant 'to join together' or 'to unite', but over time it evolved into the current sense of 'connected with'; in the compound 'ASD-associated' this has specialized to mean 'connected to or characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder'.