Think of something shaken lightly over a wide surface: a few drops on a dry road, a few people in a big hall, a few herbs on a plate. There is something there, but the gaps are bigger than the things. Both uses of smattering are that same thin — once over a space, and once over what a person knows.
可以想成把東西輕輕撒在一大片空間上。地上落了幾滴雨，大廳裡坐了幾個人，盤子上撒了一點香草。東西確實有，但空隙比東西還多，而且分散、不成一片。smattering 的兩個用法，都是這一層薄薄的撒開。一次撒在看得見的空間上，另一次撒在一個人腦袋裡：知道幾個字、幾件事，中間全是空的，所以說出口的是「略懂皮毛」。
From the word’s history
The supplied source gives only the word's build: smatter plus -ing. The old verb smatter has almost dropped out of use, and smattering is what remains of it, so the noun is best learned whole.
來源資料只給了組成方式：smatter 加 -ing。舊動詞 smatter 今天幾乎不再單獨使用，smattering 是它留下來的形式。來源沒有說明 smatter 本身的意思，所以這裡不多推論，把這個名詞整個記起來就好。
Wiktionary, "smattering"
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