核心畫面
Picture one small said lightly, meant to do no damage: the soup was lovely, the homework is finished, the shoes were cheap. Everything in this word is that one picture. The noun is the little itself; the verb is the act of saying it. The size is built into the word, so choosing fib is already a way of saying that nobody was really hurt.
可以想成一句很小、很輕的假話：湯很好喝、功課寫完了、鞋子很便宜。整個字都圍著這一個畫面轉。名詞是那句小假話本身，動詞…更多收起
可以想成一句很小、很輕的假話：湯很好喝、功課寫完了、鞋子很便宜。整個字都圍著這一個畫面轉。名詞是那句小假話本身，動詞就是把它說出口。「很小」是這個字自己帶的，所以一講 fib，等於同時說了一句「這件事沒嚴重到哪裡去」。也因為這樣，它幾乎只活在口語裡，嚴肅的場合會換成 lie。From the word’s history
The source dictionary marks the origin as unknown and suggests it probably comes from fable, a made-up story; older English also had fible-fable for nonsense. If that is right, a fib can be pictured as storytelling shrunk down to one harmless line.
字典把 fib 的來源記成不確定，只說它可能來自 fable（編出來的故事），並提到早期英文有 fible-fable（胡說八道）這個講法。如果這條線索成立，可以想成：編故事被縮到最小，只剩一句不痛不癢的假話。這是推測，不是定論。
Wiktionary entry for fib, packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:616448931 — etymology_text: 'Unknown. Probably from fable; compare fible-fable (nonsense).'