實物：乾稈與一根稈
這一族就是核心畫面本身：看得見、摸得到的稻草，整體的與單根的。
straw, dried stalks · noun · C1
Dried stems from wheat or plants like it, used as a bed for farm animals and to make things such as hats, baskets, and mats.
稻草
核心畫面
One way to hold it: the dry, hollow, yellow stems left after the grain is taken off the wheat. Light, cheap, easy to break — you spread it on the barn floor, weave it into a hat, or pick up a single stalk between your fingers.
麥子收成後剩下的那一堆乾稈——空心、發黃、輕得幾乎沒有重量，一折就斷。它便宜到可以整車鋪在牛欄地上，也細到你能從中抽…更多收起
麥子收成後剩下的那一堆乾稈——空心、發黃、輕得幾乎沒有重量，一折就斷。它便宜到可以整車鋪在牛欄地上，也細到你能從中抽出一根夾在手指間。這個畫面同時給了兩條線索：一是「空心的一根管子」（吸管就是從這裡來的），二是「輕到不值錢、脆到撐不住」（後面幾個比喻幾乎都靠這一點）。From the word’s history
From Old English strēaw, Proto-Germanic *strawą 'that which is strewn', from PIE *strew- 'to spread around, strew'. The word literally names the stuff you scatter on the ground — so 'cheap material spread about' is built into it from the start.
來自古英語 strēaw，上溯原始日耳曼語 *strawą，字面意思是「被撒開的東西」，再往上是原始印歐語 *strew-（撒、鋪）。也就是說，這個字本來指的就是「隨手鋪在地上的那種東西」——不值錢、到處都是。後來所有「輕、賤、撐不住」的比喻，其實都還踩在這個出身上。
Wiktionary, entry 'straw' (Etymology 1: OE strēaw < PGmc *strawą 'that which is strewn' < PIE *strew-)
Four branches
空心的一根：吸管
最早的吸管真的就是拿一根麥稈來用；後來改成紙和塑膠，名字卻留了下來——所以這個意思是從實物直接延伸的，不是比喻。
straw, drinking straw · noun · C1
A thin tube of paper or plastic that you use to suck a drink from a bottle or a cup.
吸管
輕到不值錢：壓垮、抓住、看風向
核心畫面裡「輕、脆、不值錢」這一面被抽出來，變成一組固定說法。這些意思都活在片語裡，straw 單獨用不會有這些意思。
the last straw · noun · C1
The last problem in a line of problems that finally makes you give up or become angry.
最後一根稻草
稻草做的假人：稻草人論點
從核心畫面裡「稻草可以編成形狀，但沒有實質」這一面長出來：外形像，內容空。
straw man · noun · C1
A weak person you argue against, or a made-up claim that is easy to beat because it is not the real one.
稻草人論點
原始詞典資料13 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Strawname
- 1
A surname transferred from the nickname.
strawnoun/stɹɔː/
- 1
A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
- 2
Such dried stalks considered collectively; this bulk matter may be a chief salable product, a by-product, fodder, bedding, or green manure, depending on region and on current market conditions.
- 3
A drinking straw.
- 4
A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
- 5
Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
- to not care a straw
- ‘For thy sword and thy bow I care not a straw, Nor all thine arrows to boot; If I get a knop upon thy bare scop, Thou canst as well shite as shoote.’
- 6
A straw owner.
- The Bromfield Street offices were housed in a dilapidated but heavily-insured building, owned by a straw for a wealthy downtown real estate developer, surrounded by expensive new commercial developments, and in a city renowned for arson-for-profit.
strawadj/stɹɔː/
- 1
Made of straw.
- straw hat
- 2
Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
- 3
Imaginary, but presented as real.
- A straw enemy built up in the media to seem like a real threat, which then collapses like a balloon.
strawverb/stɹɔː/
- 1
To scatter or to spread loosely.
- 2
To lay straw around plants to protect them from frost.
- 3
obsoleteslangTo sell straws on the streets in order to cover the giving to the purchaser of things usually banned, such as pornography.
- It was the custom for the disaffected of those days to make known their grievances by distributing papers on doors of public buildings, and even strawing them in the high way, for the benefit of the chance passenger.
- I have already alluded to "strawing," which can hardly be described as quackery. It is rather a piece of mountebankery. […] The strawer offers to sell any passer by in the streets a straw and give the purchaser a paper which he dares not sell. Accordingly as he judges of the character of his audience, so he intimates that the paper is political, libellous, irreligious, or indecent.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。