'aleurone-dense' is a compound of 'aleurone' (from Neo-Latin 'aleurone', ultimately from Greek 'álēuron' meaning 'flour') and 'dense' (from Latin 'densus' meaning 'thick, crowded').

'aleurone' was adopted into scientific Neo-Latin and English from Greek 'álēuron' via 19th-century botanical usage; 'dense' entered English from Old French 'dense' and Latin 'densus' through Middle English. The compound 'aleurone-dense' developed in botanical/agronomic literature to describe grain structure.

Originally the components meant 'flour-like' (aleurone) and 'thick/crowded' (dense); together they evolved to the specific technical sense 'having a dense aleurone layer' in seeds and grains.