The story
- Latin · derived fromapūs
- English todayApus
Named by Dutch explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman between 1595 and 1597. From Latin apūs, from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + πούς (poús, “foot”); early specimens of birds of paradise obtained by Europeans had had their feet removed during traditional taxidermy, and were consequently believed by Europeans to lack feet—see Paradisaea apoda on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.