'land-shipped' originates from Modern English as a compound of 'land' (from Old English 'land') and the verb 'ship' (from Old English 'scip' as noun; verb sense developed later), where 'land' meant 'ground, territory' and 'ship' (verb) meant 'to convey or transport'.

'land-shipped' developed by compounding in modern usage from the elements 'land' + past participle of 'ship' (i.e., 'shipped'), modeled on contrasts such as 'air-shipped' and 'sea-shipped'; it reflects a productive pattern in English of forming transport-type adjectives by combining a mode of transport with a past participle.

Initially, 'ship' was associated specifically with maritime transport, but in compounds like 'land-shipped' the element 'ship' generalized to mean 'to transport', so the compound came to mean 'transported by land' rather than 'placed on a ship'.