'gateway-connected' is a modern compound formed from the noun 'gateway' and the past participle/participle adjective 'connected'. 'Gateway' in English combines 'gate' + 'way' (originally meaning an entrance or route), and 'connected' derives from Latin 'connectere' (via Old French 'connecter'), where 'con-' meant 'together' and 'nectere' meant 'to bind or tie'.

'gateway' developed from older elements meaning 'gate' (entrance/opening or road) + 'way' (road, path) in Middle English to form 'gateway' meaning an entrance or intermediate access point; 'connected' evolved from Latin 'connectere' → Late Latin/Old French 'connecter' → Middle English 'connecten', becoming the past participle/adjective 'connected'. The modern compound 'gateway-connected' emerged in technical usage to describe devices or systems linked via a gateway.

Initially, 'gateway' primarily meant an entrance or access route and 'connected' meant 'joined together'; over time, especially with networking and IoT, 'gateway' acquired a technical sense as an intermediary routing device, so 'gateway-connected' came to mean 'connected via that intermediary (gateway)'.