土裡的石灰與黏土
這一支就是核心畫面：那種土本身，以及把它鋪回田裡的那個動作。
noun · C2
Earth made of lime and clay mixed together, sometimes with sand in it. It is soft and crumbly, and farmers have long dug it out and spread it on fields to improve thin soil.
泥灰土
核心畫面
Picture a going into a and bringing up pale, earth. It is not clean clay and not clean chalk: it is the two mixed, sometimes with sand as well, so it breaks apart in your hand. Because the lime in it sweetens sour ground and the clay in it holds water, people have been carrying this earth out of pits and onto fields for centuries. Mixture is the whole point of the word.
可以想成一把鏟子插進山坡，挖出蒼白、易碎的土。它不是純黏土，也不是純石灰，而是兩種混在一起，有時候還摻了沙，所以在手…更多收起
可以想成一把鏟子插進山坡，挖出蒼白、易碎的土。它不是純黏土，也不是純石灰，而是兩種混在一起，有時候還摻了沙，所以在手裡一捏就散。裡面的石灰可以中和太酸的地，黏土可以留住水分，因此幾百年來人們一直把這種土從坑裡挖出來、鋪到田上。「混在一起」正是這個字的重點。From the word’s history
The source entry supplied here takes marl through Middle English marle and Old French marle back to Late Latin margila, a small form of marga, marl. The word has named this same earth the whole way down.
本包附的來源條目說 marl 經由中古英語 marle、古法文 marle，回到晚期拉丁文 margila，那是 marga（泥灰土）的小稱形式。這個字一路下來指的都是同一種土，意思沒有換過。
Wiktionary entry supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:669165165:19775), etymology_text field.
Two branches
布面上的混色
同樣是「兩種東西混在一起、看得見顆粒」的感覺：土是石灰混黏土，布是深紗混淺紗。這是給學習者記憶用的畫面連結，不是在說布料的 marl 是從土的 marl 變來的。
noun · C1
Cloth with pale threads running through a darker colour, so the surface looks speckled instead of one flat shade — the grey marl of many sweatshirts and T-shirts.
混色布（如麻灰）