Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several tropical American birds of the genera Pharomachrus and Euptilotis having brilliant bronze-green and red plumage and, in the male, long flowing tail feathers, especially P. mocinno of Central America.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The paradise-trogon, Pharomacrus mocinno (or Calurus elegans), the most magnificent of the trogons, of a golden-green and carmine color, with long airy upper tail-coverts projecting like sprays a foot or two beyond the tail. It inhabits Central America, especially Costa Rica. See cut under trogon. Also quesal, quijal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A trogon of the genus Pharomacrus, especially the resplendent quetzal Pharomacrus mocinno, with very long tail feathers, found in Guatemala and Costa Rica.
  • noun A monetary unit used in Guatemala, equal to 100 centavos.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the basic unit of money in Guatemala; equal to 100 centavos
  • noun large trogon of Central America and South America having golden-green and scarlet plumage

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[American Spanish, from Nahuatl quetzalli, large brilliant tail feather.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish quetzal, from Classical Nahuatl quetzalli ("brightly colored tail feather, quetzal feather"), from quetza ("to raise, lift"). The Classical Nahuatl term for the quetzal bird proper was quetzaltōtōtl.

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