'government-imposed' is a compound of 'government' and 'imposed'. 'government' originates from Old French, specifically the word 'governement', where 'governer' came from Latin 'gubernare' meaning 'to direct, steer'. 'imposed' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'imponere', where 'im-' meant 'on' and 'ponere' meant 'to place'.

'imponere' passed into Old French as 'imposer' and into Middle English as 'impose'; 'governement' was borrowed into Middle English as 'government'. The modern compound adjective 'government-imposed' developed by combining the noun 'government' with the past participle 'imposed' used attributively to describe measures enforced by the state.

Initially, 'impose' meant 'to place upon' and 'government' referred to the act of governing; over time 'impose' shifted toward 'to enforce (a law or rule)' and 'government' came to commonly denote the governing authority, so 'government-imposed' now means 'enforced or instituted by the government.'