'high-drag-finned' originates from Modern English, specifically the compound combination of the words 'high', 'drag', and 'finned' — where 'high' comes from Old English 'heah' meaning 'tall' or 'great', 'drag' comes from Old English 'dragan' meaning 'to draw or pull', and 'finned' is formed from 'fin' (from Middle English, ultimately from Latin 'pinna' meaning 'feather/fin') plus the adjective-forming '-ed'.

'high-drag-finned' developed as a descriptive compound in technical and descriptive contexts by combining the phrase 'high drag' (used to indicate large aerodynamic/hydrodynamic resistance) with 'finned' (describing the presence of fins). It did not pass through a long historical lexical shift as a single lexical item but was formed relatively recently in Modern English from existing words.

Initially the components described separate concepts ('high' + 'drag' + 'finned'); over time their combination came to denote a single descriptive property: 'having fins that cause significant drag.'