'shale-bearing' originates from modern English, specifically the compound of the noun 'shale' and the present participle 'bearing' (from the verb 'bear'), where 'shale' denotes a fine-grained sedimentary rock and 'bearing' means 'carrying' or 'containing'.

'shale-bearing' developed from the noun phrase 'shale bearing' (two words) used in geological descriptions; over time the phrase became commonly hyphenated as 'shale-bearing' in technical usage.

Initially it described the simple presence of shale within a rock unit; this core meaning has remained largely unchanged and continues to denote 'containing shale'.