Picture an eel held in two hands. It cannot go anywhere, so it turns, and turns again, all the way along its body. That is squirm: staying in one place and twisting without stopping. Everything else in the word grows out of that. What holds you may be a hard chair, a feeling you cannot escape, or a question you do not want to answer, and the twisting may be in your body or only in your head.
From the word’s history
First recorded in the 1690s, originally used of eels; the origin is uncertain, and some link it to worm, in the sense of writhing movement.
最早的紀錄在一六九○年代，一開始就是用來講鰻魚的動作；來源不確定，有人把它跟 worm（蟲）那種扭動的畫面連在一起。這正好解釋了為什麼「鰻魚在手心裡扭」這個畫面這麼貼——那本來就是這個字最早在描述的東西。
Wiktionary entry for “squirm”, etymology text supplied in this batch's evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:857662047:20666)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。