'aluminium-poor' is a modern English compound formed from 'aluminium' + 'poor'. 'Aluminium' ultimately derives from Latin 'alumen' meaning 'bitter salt' (via New Latin and 19th-century chemical naming), and 'poor' comes from Old French 'pauvre' meaning 'impoverished'.

'aluminium' developed from Latin 'alumen' → Medieval/Modern Latin 'alumen'/'alum' → the 19th-century chemical name 'aluminium' (coined in the early 1800s). 'Poor' came into English via Old French 'pauvre' and Middle English 'poore', becoming modern English 'poor'. The compound 'aluminium-poor' is a straightforward modern compounding of these elements.

Individually, 'aluminium' has always referred to the metal or its compounds; 'poor' originally meant 'lacking resources' and later generalized to 'lacking' or 'low in'—together the compound now means 'low in aluminium content'.