Quetzal ("Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary"), from the Nahuatl root = "stand up" used to refer to an upstanding plume of feathers. The word entered English through Spanish. The word "quetzal" was originally used for just the resplendent quetzal, the long-tailed quetzal of Guatemala, (more specifically a town called Petén) which is the national bird and the name of the currency of Guatemala. It still often refers to that bird specifically but now also names all the species of the genera "Pharomachrus" and "Euptilotis". "Pharomachrus" is from Ancient Greek , "mantle", and , "long", referring to the wing and tail coverts of the
Golden-headed quetzal the family Trogonidae, which is made up of birds found in tropical rainforests worldwide. The word quetzal comes from the Nahuatl (the Aztec language) word "quetzalli" (from the root "quetz" meaning "stand"), which translates to "long green plume" or "tail feather of the quetzal". Quetzal is usually specifically used to refer to the resplendent quetzal ("Pharomachrus mocinno") first described by Pablo de la Llave in 1832 but in reality it applies to all members of the genera "Pharomachrus" and "Euptilotis". "Pharomachrus", coined by Pablo de la Llave, stems from Ancient Greek "pharos" meaning "mantle" or "cloak" and "makros" meaning "long"