Picture everything pushed into the middle of a table — everyone's money, one pile. Then one name comes out, and that person sweeps the whole pile away. Nothing is shared and nothing is left. Two things live in that picture: one winner takes all of it, and until the name comes out, nobody knows who.
可以想成桌子中間堆著大家推進去的錢，一整疊。然後抽出一個名字，那個人把整疊掃走。沒有分配，也沒有剩下。這個畫面裡藏著兩件事：一是贏家一次全拿，二是名字抽出來以前，誰也不知道是誰。這個字後來的各種用法，不是留下前面那件事，就是留下後面那件事。
From the word’s history
From sweep + stake: the stakes are what everyone puts in, and the winner sweeps them.
字源資料說它由 sweep（掃）加 stake（押上的賭注）組成。stake 是大家投進去的東西，sweep 是贏家把它全部掃走——核心畫面就是這兩個字擺在一起的樣子。
Wiktionary (kaikki extract) 'sweepstake': "From sweep + stake."
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。