Totem

How to spell totem

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce totem

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does totem mean?

1. nounAn animal, plant, or object adopted as the emblem of a family, clan, or group, often regarded as having a special connection to it.

Totem in a sentence

• The carved eagle served as the family totem for generations.

• Each scout patrol chose an animal totem to put on its flag.

Where does totem come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word comes from Ojibwe, an Algonquian language of the Great Lakes region of North America, where the form ototeman or odoodem meant something like 'his kinship group' or 'his clan'. Among Ojibwe and neighbouring peoples, such a group was identified with an animal or natural emblem from which the clan claimed descent or special connection. English-speaking traders and writers picked the word up in the late 1700s, often spelling it 'totam' or 'totem' as they tried to capture the sound, and the modern spelling settled with two e-like vowels around a single t. The familiar phrase 'totem pole', a carved post bearing stacked emblematic figures, dates from the nineteenth century and helped fix the word in everyday English. Because the source is a Native American language rather than Latin or Greek, the spelling looks deceptively simple and has no helpful root to lean on, which is exactly what makes its plain run of letters easy to second-guess.

How the word is built

• totem (a single borrowed root from Ojibwe odoodem 'his kinship group', not built from prefix or suffix)