Spoiler splits into spoil and -er: the one that spoils. So one way to hold the whole word is to picture something that was going along nicely, and then the thing that takes the nice part out of it. A run of wins was going nicely, and the weak team that beats you takes it away. A story was going nicely, and one line in a group chat takes the surprise away. Air was flowing nicely over a wing, and a raised panel takes the lift away. Whenever you meet the word, ask what was going well here, and the answer tells you which spoiler you are looking at.
From the word’s history
The etymology tree supplied in this packet builds spoiler from English spoil plus -er, and takes spoil back through Middle English spoilen and Old French espoillier to Latin spoliare, from spolium, the goods taken from a defeated enemy. The word therefore starts at taking something away by force and arrives at simply ruining, which is why an old sense meaning plunderer is still recorded in the source.
本包附的字源樹把 spoiler 拆成 spoil 加 -er，並把 spoil 經由中古英語 spoilen、古法語 espoillier 追到拉丁語 spoliāre，字根 spolium 指從敗方手上搶來的東西。可以想成這個字的起點是「搶走」，終點才是今天的「弄壞」。也因為這樣，字典裡到現在還留著一個舊意思：掠奪者。
Wiktionary entry for spoiler, etymology tree supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:816508840)
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