核心畫面

Someone slipping onto ground that belongs to other people and leaving with something wild that was never theirs to take. It happens at night, away from the path, and the whole point is not to be seen. Nobody planted the animal, nobody raised it — but the land is somebody's, and the law is somebody's, and this person walks past both. Hold that one figure by the fence line, and most of what this word does elsewhere follows from it.

可以想成一個人翻過別人的圍籬,從裡面帶走一樣本來不屬於他的野生的東西。時間多半是晚上,路線避開大路,整件事的重點就是更多收起可以想成一個人翻過別人的圍籬,從裡面帶走一樣本來不屬於他的野生的東西。時間多半是晚上,路線避開大路,整件事的重點就是不要被看見。那隻動物不是誰種出來、養出來的,可是那塊地是別人的,法律也是別人訂的,而他從兩者旁邊走了過去。把這個站在圍籬邊的身影記住,這個字在別處的用法多半都能從這裡接下去。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary gives poacher as poach + -er, the person who does the poaching. The same -er ending also produces the kitchen sense, from a completely different verb poach.

Wiktionary 記載 poacher 由 poach 加 -er 構成,也就是「做這件事的人」。同一個 -er 字尾也造出了廚房裡那個 poacher,只是前面那個 poach 是另一個完全不同的動詞。

Wiktionary (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1330980851) — "From poach + -er", with -er from Old English -ere

Two branches

偷偷拿走別人地盤上的東西

這一支直接就是核心畫面;另外兩個成員都是從那個圍籬邊的身影借過去的。

noun · B2

Someone who catches or kills wild animals, birds or fish — or takes wild plants — where they have no right to, usually on private land or in a protected area, and against the law.

盜獵者;偷獵、盜採的人

廚房裡的煮蛋器

這一支跟圍籬、獵物完全無關,硬要接回核心畫面會是牽強的;它走的是另一條路。

noun · C1

A pan for cooking eggs out of their shells: it holds small cup-shaped containers that sit over boiling water. Marked British English in the source; many speakers say egg poacher.

水波蛋鍋、煮蛋器