真的穿過細孔
這一組是字面用法：真的有東西穿過一層滿是小孔的材料。
verb · C1
If a liquid, light, or air percolates somewhere, it passes slowly through a material that is full of very small holes, moving bit by bit instead of flowing freely.
慢慢滲過
核心畫面
One way to hold percolate: think of a layer of sand, soil or rock, and one drop of water on top of it. The drop does not run. It is held up by a million tiny holes, so it edges round one grain, then the next, and takes hours or years to come out the other side. Nothing pushes it and nobody directs it; the material itself decides how slow the journey is. Every use of percolate in English seems to keep that same picture — something making its slow way through something full of small gaps.
percolate 的核心畫面可以想成一層沙、一層土或一層岩石，上面有一滴水。那滴水不會直接流下去。底下全是無數細細…更多收起
percolate 的核心畫面可以想成一層沙、一層土或一層岩石，上面有一滴水。那滴水不會直接流下去。底下全是無數細細的孔，所以它得繞過一粒沙，再繞過下一粒，可能要幾小時、幾年才從另一邊出來。沒有人推它，也沒有人指揮它，是那層材料本身決定了它有多慢。英文裡 percolate 的每一個用法，看起來都還留著這個畫面：某個東西正慢慢穿過一個滿是小縫隙的地方。From the word’s history
The evidence packet traces percolate to Latin percōlāre, from per ('through') plus cōlāre ('to strain'), itself from cōlum, 'a strainer'. The core image is close to that literally: something passing through a strainer.
附上的維基詞典資料指出，percolate 來自拉丁文 percōlāre：per 是「穿過」，cōlāre 是「過濾」，而 cōlum 就是「濾網」。這條線索幾乎就是核心畫面本身——東西穿過一層濾網。
Wiktionary entry supplied in the evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:900231262)
Two branches
消息在人群裡慢慢滲開
把那層多孔的材料換成一群人，水滴換成一則消息，慢慢穿過去的過程就完全對得上。
verb · C1
If an idea, a feeling, or a piece of news percolates through a group of people, it spreads slowly, reaching a few people at a time until most of them know it or feel it.
慢慢傳開