The term is a modern technical compound, built from established English components. 'Uranium' was named in the 18th century after the recently discovered planet Uranus, itself named for the Greek primordial sky god Ouranos. The verb 'enrich' has a long history of meaning "to make wealthy," originating from Latin via Old French. In the 20th century, its meaning was extended in scientific contexts to signify increasing the proportion of a desired substance. The suffix '-ment' is a standard nominalizer, turning the action of enriching into the name of the process. Thus, 'uranium-enrichment' literally and logically describes "the process of making uranium richer" in its fissile isotope.

Structure: uranium (element) + enrich (increase value) + ment (process suffix) - uranium: From the planet Uranus (named after the Greek god Ouranos). In this compound, it functions as the specific material being processed. - enrich: From Old French 'enrichir' (en- 'make' + riche 'rich'), based on Latin 'dives' (rich). In this compound, it means to increase the concentration or value of something. - ment: From Latin '-mentum', a suffix forming nouns that denote an action or resulting state.