'build-focused' originates from Modern English as a compound combining the verb 'build' and the adjective-form 'focused'. 'build' itself originates from Old English, specifically the word 'byldan', where the root meant 'to construct' or 'to build'. 'focused' derives (via English) from Latin 'focus', where 'focus' originally meant 'hearth' and later acquired the sense of a 'point of concentration'.

'build' changed from Old English 'byldan' into Middle English forms such as 'bilden' and eventually the modern English 'build'. 'focus' came from Latin 'focus' into Late/Neo-Latin and then English 'focus'; the adjectival/past-participle form 'focused' was formed in English by adding -ed. The compound 'build-focused' is a modern English formation (20th–21st century) used especially in business, tech, and product contexts.

Initially, 'focus' in Latin meant 'hearth' and later shifted to the figurative sense of a 'point of attention' or 'concentration'; 'build' has long meant 'to construct'. The compound 'build-focused' evolved to mean specifically 'placing primary attention on building/creating' in modern usage.