'cell-dense' originates from Modern English, formed as a compound of the noun 'cell' (ultimately from Latin 'cella') and the adjective 'dense' (from Latin 'densus'), where 'cella' meant 'small room/storage' and 'densus' meant 'thick, crowded'.

'cell' passed from Latin 'cella' into Old French and Middle English (e.g. 'celle') and later acquired the biological sense 'cell'; 'dense' comes from Latin 'densus' through Old French into Middle English as 'dense'. The compound 'cell-dense' is a recent, descriptive formation in scientific English used in the 20th–21st centuries.

Initially the roots referred to 'a small room' and 'thick/crowded'; combined in modern usage they describe something 'thickly filled with cells', specifically in microscopic or histological contexts.