手上那片小葉子（工具本身）
這兩個都是實物，差別只在葉片的形狀，而形狀是跟著工作變的。
noun · B2
A small hand tool with a flat metal blade, used for picking up wet cement, plaster, or mortar, spreading it on a surface such as a brick wall, and smoothing it flat.
抹刀；泥鏟
核心畫面
Hold this one in your hand: a short handle and one small blade, the size of your palm. Your hand does all the work — you are close to the job, by a plant or standing at a wall. The blade picks up a small amount of something soft, carries it a short way, and puts it where you want it. Curve the blade and you can dig with it. the blade and you can spread with it. Everything else in this word comes from the spreading half: the action becomes a verb, and a layer that is spread on too becomes a way of talking about words that are laid on too too.
這個字可以想成握在手裡的畫面：一支短柄，配一片手掌大的葉子。出力的是你的手，人也離工作很近——蹲在植物旁邊，或站在牆…更多收起
這個字可以想成握在手裡的畫面：一支短柄，配一片手掌大的葉子。出力的是你的手，人也離工作很近——蹲在植物旁邊，或站在牆前面。那片葉子每次盛起一點軟的東西，走一小段，放到你要的位置。葉子做成凹的，就能挖；壓成平的，就能抹。這個字後面的意思幾乎都長在「抹」這一半上：動作本身變成動詞，而抹得太厚、一眼看穿的那一層，又變成了形容話講得太滿的說法。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces trowel through Middle English trowell and Middle French truelle to Late Latin truella and Latin trulla, the small form of trua, a ladle. The starting picture is therefore a little scoop — a small blade that holds something soft on a short handle, which is still what every sense is built on.
依 Wiktionary，trowel 經中古英語 trowell、中古法語 truelle，上溯晚期拉丁文 truella 和拉丁文 trulla，而 trulla 是 trua（杓子）的小稱。所以起點的畫面就是「小杓子」：短柄加一片盛得住東西的葉子。今天不管是花園裡挖土，還是牆上抹泥，靠的都還是這個形狀。
Wiktionary (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:671518055): From Middle English trowell, from Middle French truelle, from Late Latin truella, from Latin trulla, diminutive of trua (ladle).
Two branches
抹太厚就被看穿
這一組把核心畫面往比喻推一步：重點不在抹，而在「那一層厚到看得見」。
noun · C2
To describe something in a way that is much stronger than the truth, so that it sounds far better, or far worse, than it really is.
講得太誇張；加油添醋