那根會轉的管子
核心畫面本身：實際的玩具。
noun · B2
A toy shaped like a tube. You look in one end and turn it, and loose pieces of coloured glass inside are copied by mirrors into a pattern that keeps changing.
萬花筒
核心畫面
Picture what is actually inside the tube: a few loose pieces of coloured glass and a few mirrors. Nothing is fixed, so one small turn drops the pieces somewhere new, and the mirrors copy that new arrangement several times over. The point is not that there are many colours; it is that the picture will not stay the same twice. Every other use of the word can be thought of as growing out of that turning tube.
kaleidoscope 的核心畫面可以想成那根管子裡的東西：幾片鬆散的彩色玻璃，加上幾面鏡子。玻璃沒有被固定住，所…更多收起
kaleidoscope 的核心畫面可以想成那根管子裡的東西：幾片鬆散的彩色玻璃，加上幾面鏡子。玻璃沒有被固定住，所以每轉一下就掉成新的排法；鏡子再把這個排法照成好幾份，看起來又對稱又漂亮。重點不是「顏色很多」，而是「不會停在同一個樣子」。這個字後來的每一個用法，都可以想成從這根會轉的管子長出來。From the word’s history
The name was made from Greek kalos (beautiful) plus eidos (form, shape) plus -scope (an instrument for looking), and was coined by David Brewster in his 1817 patent — so the word literally says 'a thing for looking at beautiful shapes'.
這個字是用希臘文 kalós（美麗）加 eîdos（形狀）再加 -scope（看的器具）造出來的，由英國科學家 Brewster 在 1817 年的專利中命名。字面就是「看美麗形狀的器具」，所以「漂亮」和「形狀」這兩件事，從造字的那天起就在裡面了。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:775869470): Ancient Greek καλός + εἶδος + English -scope, coined by David Brewster in his 1817 patent.
Three branches
一直在變的畫面
把管子裡的行為搬到世界上：東西不停重新排列，而且好看。
noun · C1
A scene, situation or set of things that keeps changing and is full of different details or bright colours. It almost always appears as 'a kaleidoscope of something'.
千變萬化的景象
一群蝴蝶
借畫面來命名一群動物：亮色的小翅膀在動，形狀每秒都不同。
noun · C2
A group of butterflies flying together. English gives many animal groups their own word, and this is the one for butterflies, used in the phrase 'a kaleidoscope of butterflies'.
一群蝴蝶