Picture one tall tree trunk stood on end, with figures up its whole height — a bear low down, a bird at the top, others in between. Two things about that picture matter. The figures mean something: they were cut for a particular family and they record who that family is. And they are stacked, one above another, so the pole has a top and a bottom. English keeps the first thing when it talks about the object itself, and borrows the second when it talks about people.
Two branches
實際的那根柱子
這一支就是畫面本身：看得到、摸得到的那根刻著形象的木柱。
noun · B2
A tall wooden pole, cut from a tree, with figures of animals, people, or spirits carved and often painted up its whole height. Totem poles are made by Indigenous peoples of the northwest coast of North America, and the figures stand for things such as a family line, a belief, or something that happened.
圖騰柱
借來講人的高低位置
英文從那張圖裡只取走「形象是上下疊著的」這一點，用來講一群人裡誰在上、誰在下。這是英文後來的比喻用法，不是圖騰柱本身的意思，也不代表真正的柱子就是按重要性排的。
noun · C1
The order of rank inside a group or company, pictured as a pole with the most important people at the top and the least important at the bottom.
上下排序