盒子裡的顏料
最靠近核心畫面的一支：講的就是那塊要加水才化得開的顏色本身。
noun · B1
A kind of paint that you mix with water before you use it. It comes as small blocks or tubes of colour, and it goes onto paper in thin layers that you can see through.
水彩（顏料）
核心畫面
Picture a brush loaded with water touching a block of dry colour, and the colour lifting and running out across the paper. Water is inside this paint, not just beside it: the more water, the thinner and paler the layer, and the more the white paper shows through from underneath. That one see-through layer is the whole word. The name of the paint then travels in the ordinary way names travel — onto the sheet that comes out of it, onto the whole practice of working this way, and even onto the action of doing it.
可以想成一支沾了水的筆碰到乾乾的顏色塊，顏色被水帶起來，在紙上跑開。水不是站在旁邊的配角，它是這種顏料的一部分：水越…更多收起
可以想成一支沾了水的筆碰到乾乾的顏色塊，顏色被水帶起來，在紙上跑開。水不是站在旁邊的配角，它是這種顏料的一部分：水越多，那一層就越薄越淡，底下紙的白就越透出來。整個字的起點就是那一層透明的顏色。接下來這個名字往外走，走法跟其他材料名一樣自然——從顏料走到畫出來的那張紙上，再走到「畫水彩」這整件事上，最後連做這件事的動作也用同一個字。From the word’s history
From water + colour.
這個字就是 water（水）加 colour（顏色）接起來的。拆開來看，字面已經把用法說完了：要先加水，顏色才化得開、才會透。
Wiktionary entry for watercolour (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:836314204:29600): From water + colour.
Two branches
由那盒顏料長出來的東西與事
材料的名字往外借：借給紙上的成品、借給整套畫法，也借給做這件事的動作。這是用法上的自然延伸，不是說歷史上真的分成三步走。
noun · B1
A picture that has been painted with watercolours.
水彩畫