'poorly-guided' is a modern English compound formed from the adverb 'poorly' (from 'poor' + -ly) and the past participle 'guided' (from the verb 'guide').

'poor' comes into English via Old French 'povre' from Latin 'pauper' meaning 'poor'; 'poorly' is the adverbial form formed with -ly. 'Guide' comes from Old French 'guider' (from a Germanic source meaning 'to show the way'), and 'guided' is the past participle in Modern English. The compound 'poorly-guided' is a relatively recent descriptive formation in Modern English.

Initially the components meant 'in a poor manner' and 'to show the way'; over time the compound came to mean specifically 'directed in a poor or mistaken way'.