"high on the totem pole" meaning in All languages combined

See high on the totem pole on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

Etymology: Derived from totem poles, traditional sculptures of wood made by American Indians, usually with several figures carved one above the other. The vertical order was mistakenly perceived by the non-Indians to correspond with the figures' rank of importance. Head templates: {{head|en|adjective|head=high on the totem pole}} high on the totem pole
  1. (often offensive, idiomatic) Accorded relatively high importance. Tags: idiomatic, offensive, often
    Sense id: en-high_on_the_totem_pole-en-adj-8MkADL76 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "low on the totem pole"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Derived from totem poles, traditional sculptures of wood made by American Indians, usually with several figures carved one above the other. The vertical order was mistakenly perceived by the non-Indians to correspond with the figures' rank of importance.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "high on the totem pole"
      },
      "expansion": "high on the totem pole",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Accorded relatively high importance."
      ],
      "id": "en-high_on_the_totem_pole-en-adj-8MkADL76",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often offensive, idiomatic) Accorded relatively high importance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "offensive",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "high on the totem pole"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "low on the totem pole"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Derived from totem poles, traditional sculptures of wood made by American Indians, usually with several figures carved one above the other. The vertical order was mistakenly perceived by the non-Indians to correspond with the figures' rank of importance.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "high on the totem pole"
      },
      "expansion": "high on the totem pole",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English offensive terms",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Accorded relatively high importance."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often offensive, idiomatic) Accorded relatively high importance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "offensive",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "high on the totem pole"
}

Download raw JSONL data for high on the totem pole meaning in All languages combined (1.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.