Hold the picture of a sample first: one small piece taken out so that it can stand for the whole. A sampler is what you get when you put the -er on that. Sometimes the -er points at the thing made of samples — a plate with five little cakes, a disc with one minute of each song, a cloth with every stitch the knows. Sometimes it points at whoever does the taking — the worker who pulls one bag from each batch, the machine that draws a bottle of river water every hour, the box that keeps a second of sound so a musician can rebuild it. Small piece, whole story: that is the thread.
Wiktionary records two routes that meet at the same Latin word. The sewing sampler comes through Old French essamplaire from Latin exemplāris, and is a doublet of exemplar. The other uses are simply sample + -er, where sample itself traces back through Old French to Latin exemplum. Both routes carry the idea of something set out as an example.
Wiktionary 記了兩條路，最後都通到同一個拉丁字。繡布的那個 sampler 走的是 Old French essamplaire、Latin exemplāris，和 exemplar（範例）是雙式詞。其他幾個意思則單純是 sample 加 -er，而 sample 自己也是經古法文回到 Latin exemplum。兩條路帶的都是同一個概念：拿出來當例子看的東西。
Wiktionary entry for 'sampler', etymology 1 (Old French essamplaire < Latin exemplāris; doublet of exemplar) and etymology 2 (sample + -er), supplied in this packet
Three branches
由樣品組成、讓你一次體驗多種的東西
這一組最貼近核心畫面：東西本身就是一堆小樣本拼起來的，重點在種類多而不是份量大。
noun · B2
A set of small pieces of several different things, put together so that you can try them all — for example a plate with a little of five cakes on it, or a free CD with one short part of each song.
綜合試吃／試聽組
負責取樣的人或機器
同一個 -er，讀法換一個角度：不是「由樣品做成的東西」，而是「把樣品取下來的那一方」。
noun · C1
A person whose job is to take small amounts of something, or a machine built to do the same, so that what is taken can be tasted, tested or checked.
取樣員；採樣器
展示各種針法的繡布
畫面一樣是「一件小東西展示一整排樣式」，但這一支在歷史上走的是另一條路，來自 exemplar 那一系。
noun · C1
A piece of cloth sewn with many different stitches, letters or small pictures, made to show how well someone can sew.
刺繡練習布