Ototeman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The totem or clan emblem that a person belongs to, used to identify kinship within certain Native American communities
2. A person's own totem animal or clan symbol, which marks their family line and social group in some Indigenous cultures
3. The clan emblem or totemic identity a person inherits, signifying membership in a particular kinship group

Etymology: The "o-" at the start of "ototeman" is an Ojibwe possessive prefix meaning "his" or "her." The spelling follows the Ojibwe form "odoodem," which means "his kinship group" or "his clan." English speakers borrowed the word from Ojibwe to describe a family or clan bound together by a shared animal or natural emblem, and "ototeman" is one of several spellings that circulated before a single form settled. The word then drifted from its original sense. In Ojibwe, it named a kinship group and its relationships, not the emblem itself. English writers, especially anthropologists, applied it to the animal or object that marked the group, and later to any sacred object or badge linked with a person, family, or place. The original kinship sense is largely lost in the English usage.

Synonyms: totem