'cell-sparse' originates from English, specifically the combination of 'cell' and 'sparse', where 'cell' ultimately comes from Latin 'cella' meaning 'small room' and 'sparse' comes from Latin 'sparsus' (past participle of 'spergere') meaning 'scattered'.

'cell' changed from Latin 'cella' into Old French/Medieval Latin forms and then into Middle English 'celle' before becoming modern English 'cell'; 'sparse' entered English from Latin via Old French (e.g. 'espars') and Middle English 'sparse'. The compound 'cell-sparse' is a modern English formation combining these two elements to describe low cellularity.

Initially, 'cell' referred to a small room and 'sparse' meant 'scattered'; combined in modern usage they specifically describe a tissue or sample with few or widely scattered cells, i.e., 'having few cells'.