Etymology

tilapia

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Today it means: Any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide. Full definition →

taxonomic name Tilapia ← Tswana tlhapi
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The story

  1. Tswanatlhapi
  2. taxonomic nameTilapia
  3. English todaytilapia

Learned borrowing from taxonomic name Tilapia, from Tswana tlhapi (“fish”). The drag race slang usage is a reference to the comment by Gia Gunn on entering Ru Paul's Drag Race (season 6) "Just landed like fresh tilapia".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.