'archipterygium' originates from Greek, specifically from the elements 'arkhi-' meaning 'first, chief' and 'pteryx' meaning 'wing, fin', with the diminutive/formation '-ion' used in New Latin/Latinized Greek.

'archipterygium' entered scientific English in the 19th century (via Latinized Greek/New Latin), used by comparative anatomists such as Carl Gegenbaur to name a hypothesized ancestral fin; it developed from Greek compound elements into the Latinized technical term 'archipterygium'.

Initially, it denoted the theoretical or reconstructed 'original' fin plan thought to underlie vertebrate limbs; over time it has remained a technical historical term in comparative anatomy and paleontology, often used in discussions of ancestral fin morphology rather than as a description of living structures.