totem polen.
/ˈtəʊtəm pəʊl/, U.S. /ˈtoʊdəm ˌpoʊl/ 1.
a. A wooden post carved and painted with totem figures, erected by some North American Indian peoples of the north-west coast.Totem poles have a variety of functions, including as records of family or clan histories, structural supports for houses, and memorials.
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the world > the supernatural > deity > [noun] > idol > worshipped by specific people > American Indians > post depicting totem-figures
totem post1876
totem pole1880
society > faith > artefacts > symbol (general) > non-Christian symbols or images > [noun] > totem > post
totem post1876
totem pole1880
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinship group > tribe > [noun] > small tribe or division of tribe > American Indian > post used by
totem pole1880
totem1883
1880 S. Jackson Alaska & Missions N. Pacific Coast ix. 263 Daylight found us near Fort Tongas... From the water there seemed to be a whole forest of..totem poles.
1897 B. W. James Alaska 75 It has ever been an unanswerable question as to the origin of these totem poles.
1910 A. F. Chamberlain in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 470/1 The wood art of the Indians of the North Pacific coast (masks, utensils, houses, totem-poles, furniture, &c.).
1940 L. MacNeice Last Ditch 18 And under the totem poles—the ancient terror—between the enormous fluted Ionic columns There seeps..The guttural sorrow of the refugees.
2002 Wood Carving Illustr. Summer 67/1 While the choice of figures can represent a variety of themes, the essential message is that a totem pole displays both family status and history.
b. colloquial. Used in various figurative phrases with reference to a person's position in a hierarchy, esp. in low man on the totem pole: a person of lowly status. Similarly low on the totem pole: of lowly status.In fact, totem pole carvings are often not arranged in a hierarchical order, and may show important figures near the bottom.
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the mind > emotion > humility > [adjective] > of rank or position
low man on the totem pole1941
low on the totem1956
1941 H. A. Smith (title) Low man on a totem pole.
1945 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Sept. 1/7 The lowest brass to sign the surrender documents was Colonel L. Moore Cosgrave... ‘He's low man on the totem pole,’ murmured an Australian correspondent.
1973 ‘B. Mather’ Snowline iii. 36 Just how far up the Departmental totem pole was Hallaby?
2002 Vanity Fair July 74/1 If they don't rank high enough on the corporate totem pole, she ignores them.
2017 Times-Tribune (Corbin, Kentucky) (Nexis) 13 May Even if you feel like you're low on the totem pole, you still have to show up everyday on time and do your best.
2. Electronics. A circuit in which the input signal is split between two transistors before being recombined at the output stage, esp. one in which the transistors are identical and the signals being fed into them are 180° out of phase. Cf. push-pull adj., n., and adv.Such circuits are typically used in amplifiers to cancel out signal distortion. In circuit diagrams they are drawn with one transistor on top of another, usually with a third component between them.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electronics > electronic devices or components > [noun] > circuit elements or components > with specific arrangement
quadripole1928
long-tailed pair1942
long-tail pair1946
totem pole1953
1953 Proc. IRE 41 712/2 The arrangement, essentially a single-pole double-throw switch, has come to be known as the ‘totem pole’ circuit.
1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 155/2 High leakage of the multiple-emitter transistor may load a circuit excessively. To offset this..the totem pole output stage is used.
1981 P. M. Chirlian Anal. & Design Integrated Electronic Circuits v. 114 The load resistance of Fig. 5–10 has been replaced by an enhancement MOSFET. This ‘load’ is called an active load or active pull-up... The circuit is also called a totem pole because the elements are drawn one above the other in the schematic diagram.
2000 P. Scherz Pract. Electronics for Inventors xii. 350 Q₂ provides control and current boosting to the totem-pole output stage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1880