One way to hold this word: something is hard to swallow, so a small sweet thing goes in alongside it. That is the whole word. In a cup it is the spoon of honey or the tiny tablet that replaces sugar. On a desk it is the free year of service dropped into a contract nobody wanted to sign. The thing being swallowed does not change; what changes is how easily it goes down.
sweetener 可以想成這個畫面：有樣東西不好入口，所以旁邊加一點甜的進去。整個字就是這件事。在杯子裡，它是那一匙蜂蜜，或是代替糖的那顆小錠。在辦公桌上，它是那份沒人想簽的合約裡忽然附上的一年免費服務。要吞下去的東西沒有變，變的是吞得順不順。
From the word’s history
From the verb sweeten plus the agent suffix -er: the thing that does the sweetening, like opener or cleaner.
由動詞 sweeten（使變甜）加上表示「做這件事的人或東西」的字尾 -er 組成，跟 opener、cleaner 同一個造法。字面就是「負責把東西弄甜的那個」。這條線索也說明了為什麼它後來可以離開廚房：只要有東西需要被弄得好接受一點，那個角色就是 sweetener。
Wiktionary entry supplied in this batch's evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:886316490)
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