Origin and history of exotic

1590s, "belonging to another country," from French exotique (16c.) and directly from Latin exoticus, from Greek exotikos "foreign," literally "from the outside," from exo "outside" (see exo-).

The sense of "unusual, strange" in English is recorded by 1620s, from the notion of "alien, outlandish." In reference to strip-teasers and dancing girls, it is attested by 1942, American English.

Exotic dancer in the nightclub trade means a girl who goes through a few motions while wearing as few clothes as the cops will allow in the city where she is working ... [Life magazine, May 5, 1947]

As a noun from 1640s, "anything of foreign origin," originally plants.