'reduced-aleurone' is a compound of 'reduced' and 'aleurone'. 'Reduced' ultimately originates from Latin 'reducere', where 're-' meant 'back' and 'ducere' meant 'to lead'. 'Aleurone' comes into English via New Latin/French from Greek 'aleuron' meaning 'flour'.

'reducere' passed into Late Latin and then via Old French and Middle English as words like 'reduce' before forming the past-participle-based adjective 'reduced'. 'Aleuron' in Greek became New Latin 'aleuron' and French 'aleurone', which entered English as the technical botanical term 'aleurone'. The compound 'reduced-aleurone' is a modern scientific coinage formed by joining these elements.

Originally, components meant 'to lead back' (re-) and 'flour' (aleuron). 'Reduced' came to mean 'made smaller or lessened', and 'aleurone' shifted from the basic sense of 'flour-like' to denote the specific protein-rich outer layer of cereal endosperm; together they now denote a decreased/thinned aleurone layer.