名詞：表面上的那一塊痕跡
這一組直接就是核心畫面本身，先是摸得到的表面，再延伸到摸不到的名聲。
noun · B2
A small mark on someone's skin, or on the surface of an object, that makes it look less than perfect — a spot, a stain, a scratch, or a bruise on a piece of fruit.
瑕疵、斑點
核心畫面
Think of a clean, even surface — a cheek, an apple, a painted door — with one small mark on it. The mark is not a hole and it does not break anything; it is just a place where the surface stops being even, and your eye goes straight to it. Everything blemish does grows out of that one picture: the mark itself, the act of leaving it, and the same mark placed on something you cannot touch, like a person's record.
可以想成一片乾淨平整的表面：一邊臉頰、一顆蘋果、一扇剛漆好的門。上面出現一小塊痕跡。它不是破洞，也沒有讓東西壞掉。它…更多收起
可以想成一片乾淨平整的表面：一邊臉頰、一顆蘋果、一扇剛漆好的門。上面出現一小塊痕跡。它不是破洞，也沒有讓東西壞掉。它只是讓那片表面不再均勻，而你的眼睛會直接看過去。blemish 的每個用法都從這個畫面長出來：那塊痕跡本身、留下痕跡的動作，還有把同一塊痕跡放到摸不到的東西上，例如一個人的紀錄。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces blemish to Old French blemir, blesmir, 'to make pale, injure, bruise', from a Germanic root meaning 'pale'. A pale patch on an even surface is close to the modern picture: a spot of the wrong colour on something that was uniform.
根據 Wiktionary，blemish 來自古法文 blemir、blesmir（使變蒼白、弄傷、瘀青），再往上是意思為「蒼白」的日耳曼字根。「在均勻的表面上出現一塊顏色不對的地方」跟今天的用法非常接近，所以這個字根可以拿來當記憶的線索。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in the evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:867342157)
Two branches
動詞：留下那塊痕跡
同一個畫面換成動作：有東西在原本完好的表面上留下印子。
verb · C1
To spoil something that was clean, beautiful or perfect, by leaving a mark on it or by adding one bad point to it — used about surfaces, and also about a record, a name or a reputation.
使有瑕疵、玷污
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
blemishnoun/ˈblɛmɪʃ/
- 1
A small flaw which spoils the appearance of something, a stain, a spot.
- Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.
- Any foot shape deviating from this model is conceived as a blemish, and the animal is unclean.
- 2
A moral defect; a character flaw.
- As piety is the peculiar ornament of old people, so the want of it is a peculiar blemish in their character.
- The processes of categorization, stereotyping, discrimination, and self-fulfilling prophecy can also apply to stigmas based on blemishes of individual character.
blemishverb/ˈblɛmɪʃ/
- 1
To spoil the appearance of.
- we see ordinarie examples by this licence which wonderfully blemisheth the authoritie and lustre of our law, never to stay upon one sentence, but to run from one to another judge, to decide one same case.
- Generally, varieties in current use for processing are resilient, if not wholly resistant to blemishing diseases and disorders.
- 2
To tarnish (reputation, character, etc.); to defame.
- There had nothing passed betwixt us that might blemish reputation.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。