'pointed-billed' is a modern English compound formed from the adjective 'pointed' and the noun-derived adjective 'billed' (from 'bill', meaning beak).

'pointed' comes via Middle English from Old French 'point' ultimately from Latin 'punctum' (meaning 'point'); 'bill' comes from Old English 'bile' meaning 'beak' or 'cutting edge', which developed into Middle English 'bille' and modern English 'bill'; the compound 'pointed-billed' is a descriptive compound formed in modern English.

Individually, 'pointed' originally related to a point or tip and 'bill' to a beak; together the compound came to mean specifically 'having a bill that is pointed', a straightforward descriptive sense.