The term 'tag-team' is a modern compound, originating in the early 20th century from the world of professional wrestling. The first element, 'tag', draws on the children's game 'tag', where one person touches another to transfer a role or status. This action perfectly describes the physical touch used by wrestlers to legally substitute partners. The second element, 'team', has ancient Germanic roots related to drawing or pulling together, evolving to mean any group united for a common activity. Thus, the compound's literal logic is "a group that operates by means of a touch-transfer," which accurately captures the coordinated, alternating partnership central to both the sporting and general collaborative senses of the word.

Structure: tag (touch/label) + team (group) - tag: From Middle English tagge, of uncertain origin, possibly related to a Scandinavian source meaning a point or a peg. In this compound, it carries the sense of a touch or signal to initiate a change. - team: From Old English tēam (childbearing, offspring, a line of descendants, a group of draft animals), from Proto-Germanic taumaz (that which pulls or draws). Its functional role is the core noun, denoting a group working together.