A tropical fish with distinctive dark and light stripes on its body, resembling the striped clothing once worn by prisoners (also called cichlid).
Compound word from 'convict' (a prisoner, from Latin 'convictus') and 'fish.' Named because the fish's black and white stripes resemble a prisoner's striped uniform, which was common historically.
The convict fish was given such a dramatic name because of those bold black and white stripes—it's one of those perfect examples of how common people name animals based on what they remind them of!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.