One way to hold this word: a small furry animal on a branch at night, babies in its pouch, holding completely still when a light hits it. The animal is the whole word. Everything else the word does in English comes from watching it — most of all from that moment when it stops moving and waits for the danger to lose interest.
可以想成一隻毛茸茸的小動物，晚上停在樹枝上，育兒袋裡帶著寶寶，燈一照就一動也不動。這個字的底就是這隻動物。它在英文裡其他的用法，都可以想成從「看著牠」長出來的，尤其是牠停住不動、等危險自己走開的那一瞬間。要注意的是同一個字在美國和澳洲指的其實是不同的動物，共通的只有這個畫面。
From the word’s history
The word is opossum with the unstressed first syllable dropped, a shortening English does often in speech.
這個字可以想成是 opossum 把開頭沒有重音的 o 省掉之後留下的形式。英文口語常這樣削掉字頭的弱音，短的那個說久了就自己站成一個字。
Wiktionary, "possum"
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