'cultural-geographic' originates from the combination of the adjective 'cultural' (from Latin 'cultura' via Old French/Medieval Latin, where 'cultura' meant 'cultivation' and later 'culture' as 'practices and arts') and 'geographic' (from Greek 'geographia', where 'geo-' meant 'earth' and 'graph' meant 'to write or describe').

'cultural' developed from Latin 'cultura' into Old French and Middle English 'culture' before forming the adjective 'cultural' with the suffix '-al'; 'geographic' derives from Greek 'geographia' through Latin and French into English as 'geography' and the adjective 'geographic'. The compound 'cultural-geographic' is a modern English formation combining those two existing adjectives.

Initially the root elements referred to 'cultivation/ways of life' and 'description of the earth'; over time the combined expression evolved to mean 'pertaining to how culture and place/space interact', a modern academic/analytic usage.