'sterol-associated' originates from the modern scientific noun 'sterol' and the past participle 'associated'. 'sterol' ultimately traces to Greek stear- ('tallow') via words like German/French 'stearin', while 'associated' comes from Latin 'associare', where 'ad-' meant 'to' and 'socius' meant 'companion'.

'sterol' developed in 19th-century chemical nomenclature from words such as German 'stearin' derived from Greek 'stear-' meaning 'tallow'. 'associated' entered English via Old French and Middle English from Latin 'associare'. The compound adjective 'sterol-associated' arose in 20th-century biochemical English to describe entities linked to sterols.

Individually, 'sterol' originally referred to fat- or tallow-like substances and 'associated' meant 'joined with'; combined in modern scientific use they have retained the meaning 'linked with sterols' to describe biochemical relationships.