'address-light' originates from the combination of 'address' and 'light', where 'address' refers to a specific location or identifier in a network, and 'light' refers to an illuminating device.

The term 'address-light' evolved from the need to visually indicate the status of network addresses in computing devices.

Initially, it referred to any light indicating an addressable component, but over time it became more specific to networking equipment.