Totem pole?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Totem pole?

At any rate, Smith coined the expression “low man on the totem pole” in 1941 and it caught on. Today, if someone says they’re the low man on the totem pole or any project, they mean to say they’re the common man – their rankings, if they’ve got any, are low.

They are, quite frankly, unimportant.

The fact that Smith may have got it all wrong in the very beginning no longer matters – that’s the thing with language. Eventually, it’s common usage that reigns supreme.

Alright, here are examples of “totem pole” as social hierarchy in use:

1. The Lakers elected not to re-sign much of their training and basketball operations staff this summer. It was a total housecleaning move which seems pretty insane considering the vast amount of success the Lakers have enjoyed for the past... well, ever, but especially recently.

Kobe Bryant is generally considered a pretty hard-hearted guy, what with the poisonous snake moniker, ruthless desire to win and cool, calculated demeanor, not to mention the jaw-jut.

How are those two things related? Turns out Kobe Bryant was willing to do the right thing by the video staff, even if the Lakers decided to go in another direction. From the Los Angeles Times:

Kobe Bryant insisted on giving some of the team’s playoff bonus to two members of the Lakers’ video department whose contracts were not renewed after the season. Chris Bodaken and Patrick O’Keefe split about $65,000 of the Lakers’ playoff bonus.