A large predatory fish or shark species found in tropical waters, known from historical naturalist descriptions or regional naming.
Likely derived from Portuguese or Dutch colonial sources describing fish encountered in tropical Atlantic or Pacific waters. The etymology remains uncertain from available historical records.
Many tropical fish names are one-hit wonders in English—they appear in one old explorer's journal and then vanish! These words show how colonial naturalists were discovering and naming creatures they'd never seen before.
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