The term "to-go" is a modern lexicalization of the common English verb phrase "to go". Its specific application to food and drink prepared for consumption off the premises emerged in the mid-20th century, particularly in American English, as a concise alternative to phrases like "for taking away" or "to take out". The logic is directly metaphorical: the food is intended "to go" away from the point of sale. The phrase "to go" itself has ancient Germanic roots, with "go" tracing back to the Proto-Germanic gāną and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root ǵʰeh₁-, meaning "to leave, abandon". The transformation from a directional verb phrase to a fixed attributive adjective and noun exemplifies the fluid, compounding nature of English, where common syntactic constructions can fossilize into new lexical items to meet societal needs, such as the rise of fast food culture.

This is a phrasal adjective/noun derived from the infinitive verb phrase "to go". It is not productively formed from separate, independent morphemes in the modern sense. The phrase "to go" itself comes from Old English, where "to" was a preposition and "gān" meant "to go, walk, depart".