The word koala comes from the Dharuk gula. Although the vowel /u/ was originally written in the English orthography as
"oo" (in spellings such as coola or koolah), it was changed to "oa" possibly due to an error. The word is erroneously
said to mean "doesn't drink".
The scientific name of the koala's genus, Phascolarctos, is derived from Greek phaskolos "pouch" and arktos "bear". Its
species name, cinereus, is Latin and means "ash-coloured".
Although the koala is not a bear, English-speaking settlers from the late 18th century first called it koala bear due
to its similarity in appearance to bears. Although taxonomically incorrect, the name koala bear is still in use today
outside Australia – its use is discouraged because of the inaccuracy in the name. Other descriptive
English names based on "bear" have included monkey bear, native bear, and tree-bear.
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