'architeuthis' originates from Modern (scientific) Latin/New Latin, specifically from the Greek elements 'arkhi-' and 'teuthis', where 'arkhi-' meant 'chief, principal' and 'teuthis' meant 'squid'.

'architeuthis' was coined in the 19th century as a scientific genus name by combining Greek roots into New Latin; it was then adopted into English biological nomenclature as the name for the giant-squid genus.

Initially it literally meant 'chief/large squid' (from the Greek roots), and over time it came to denote the specific biological genus now known as the giant squid.