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A totem is an animal, a plant, or sometimes another natural thing that a family, a clan, or a tribe treats as specially connected to them — a kind of spiritual relative or emblem. The idea is strongest in talk about Indigenous peoples of North America: your clan might be the Bear or the Eagle, and that creature stands for who your people are, with stories, respect, and rules attached to it.
A totemTotem(圖騰) is an animal, a plant, or sometimes another natural thing是一種動物、植物，或有時候是其他自然界的東西 that a family, a clan, or a tribe treats as specially connected to them被一個家族、氏族或部落視為與自己有特殊連結 a kind of spiritual relative or emblem是一種精神上的親屬或象徵 The idea is strongest in talk about Indigenous peoples of North America這個概念在講北美原住民時最鮮明 your clan might be the Bear or the Eagle你的氏族可能是Bear（熊）或Eagle（鷹） and that creature stands for who your people are而那個生物就代表你們這群人是誰 with stories, respect, and rules attached to it並且伴隨著故事、敬意，以及一套規範
The word can also mean the or painted figure made of that creature, which is why *totem pole* — the tall cedar post of the Pacific Northwest — is the phrase most meet first.
The word can also mean the carved or painted figure made of that creature這個字也可以指用那種生物做成的雕刻或彩繪像 which is why *totem pole*這也是為什麼*totem pole* the tall carved cedar post of the Pacific Northwest太平洋西北岸那種高高的雪松雕刻柱 is the phrase most learners meet first是大多數學習者最先遇到的說法
In wider use, people borrow the word for anything a group treats as its sacred symbol, often with a hint that outsiders find the a bit much: "the company car became a totem of success". *Totem pole* has also drifted into office English, where "low on the totem pole" means low in rank — worth knowing that this use is an outsider's misreading, since the carvings are not really a ranking from top to bottom, and some people find the phrase careless.
In wider use更廣的用法裡 people borrow the word for anything a group treats as its sacred symbol人們會借用這個字來講任何一個群體視為神聖象徵的東西 often with a hint that outsiders find the reverence a bit much常常帶著一點「外人覺得這種崇敬有點誇張」的意味 "the company car became a totem of success""the company car became a totem of success"（那台公司配車變成了成功的象徵） *Totem pole* has also drifted into office English*Totem pole*也滲入了辦公室英文 where "low on the totem pole" means low in rank"low on the totem pole"意思是職位低 worth knowing that this use is an outsider's misreading值得知道的是，這種用法其實是外人的誤解 since the carvings are not really a ranking from top to bottom因為那些雕刻其實不是由上到下的排名 and some people find the phrase careless也有些人覺得這個說法用得不太謹慎
A gentle note on respect: these are living traditions, not museum curiosities, so it is best to write about them the way you would want someone writing about your own family's shrine.
A gentle note on respect溫和地提醒一下要尊重 these are living traditions, not museum curiosities這些是活生生的傳統，不是博物館裡的稀奇展品 so it is best to write about them the way you would want someone writing about your own family's shrine所以最好用你會希望別人怎麼寫你自己家族祠堂的方式，來寫它們
組成Borrowed into English from Ojibwe, an Indigenous language of North America — from *(o)doodem*, roughly "his clan, his kin-group". English took it in the 1700s, and it kept the sound rather than being translated, which is common for words describing something the borrowing language had no name for.
同家族的字
- totemicthe adjective, formed from the same borrowed word
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
totemnoun/ˈtoʊtəm/
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Any natural object or living creature that serves as an emblem of a tribe, clan or family; the representation of such an object or creature.
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The clan whose kinship is defined in reference to such an object or creature.
- The totem members were forbidden to eat the flesh of the totem animal, or were allowed to do so only under specific conditions.
- These meanings flow from bear-like characteristics imprinted on totem members. Members of the bear clan may have dispositional, cognitive, and physical capabilities similar to those of bear.
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A symbol or personification.
- “She became a totem,” he added. “She became the personification of a particular response to the pandemic, which people in the far-flung margins of the internet and the not so far-flung margins used against her.”
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An arbitrarily chosen object serving as a reminder to check whether one is awake or not, to aid in having lucid dreams.
- The best way to determine if you are dreaming or not is to have a totem in your lucid dreams that does not exist in reality. Inducing yourself is as easy as waking up during the night and practicing as you fall back asleep. Say, "I will be aware I am dreaming while I am dreaming by seeing my totem."
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A tall object resembling a totem pole.
- Out the front of the Drive-in rose the town’s main tourist attraction, a totem of signs to bizarre places with impossible distances such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and so on.
- There were rumors going around Clapham that he was some sort of wizard. Admittedly, the most striking feature of his estate did not help to dispel those rumors. From a little hillock in the yard, an eighty-foot pole projected into the sky, like a ship’s mast rising from dry land. [...] Despite his eccentric couture and the strange totem rising from his backyard, Henry Cavendish was not a wizard. He was, in eighteenth-century terms, a natural philosopher, or what we now call a scientist.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。