Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
the quetzal bird, prized for its long green feathers; this word can also stand for the feathers themselves; typically, the birds and the feathers were obtained through trade/tributes from peoples in Central America
For a beautiful photo of a quetzaltototl, see this one hosted by Mexicolore:
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/images-6/613_01_2.jpg
QUETZAL-TŌTŌ-TL, Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) [FC: 19 Quetzaltototl]: This can only be the Resplendent Quetzal. QUETZAL-LI refers to the “plumage of the quetzal bird” (Karttunen).
quetzaltototl = a quetzal bird
Auh ixqujch nenca in tlaҫotototl, y xiuhtototl, in quetzaltototl, i ҫaqua, in tlauhquechol, yoan in ie ixqujch nepapan tototl in cenca vel tlatoa, in vel tepacic cujca = And there dwelt all [varieties of] birds of precious feather—the blue cotinga, the quetzal, the trupial, the red spoonbill, and all the different birds, which spoke very well; which sang right sweetly (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
ilhuicac quetzaltototl oalmotitla in iuictzinco Dios inantzi = a heavenly quetzal bird was sent to God’s mother (late sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
açan axcà ye quetzaltototl nicyaizcaltiquetl a = Laboriously I feed the quetzal bird.;
Q. n. oncã evac in tetomã, nitlacochtetometl. auh in axcã ye quetzaltototl ynic nitlazcaltia = This means there in Tetoman he rose. I am Tlacochtetometl. And now he is a quetzal bird; therefore I feed him.... Y yopuchi noteuh atlavaquetl, = Opochtli, my god, is Atlahua.