quetzalhuaqui (MH833r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the noun and occupation quetzalhuaqui, one who possesses quetzal birds, shows one upright feather. The vanes are very loose and brush-like, not closed like so many feathers often are.
Stephanie Wood
In reality, the quetzal feathers are quite open, as this image of the Moctecuzom II's famous headdress shows. Some other glyphs also show them like this one. But some have them looking smooth.
Quetzal feathers came from lands far to the south, such as what is now Guatemala. Perhaps the productivity associated with this occupation involved traveling to obtain quetzal birds, and/or raising them, and probably providing feathers in tributes.
Stephanie Wood
quetzal
vaq~
quetzalhuaqui
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
plumas, quetzales, oficios
quetzalhuaqui, one who possesses quetzal birds, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzalhuaqui
quetzal(li), the feathers of a quetzal bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzalli
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 833r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=740&st=image
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).