One way to hold terracotta: earth taken out of the ground, shaped, and baked in a hot oven until it is hard. What comes out is heavy, plain to the touch, and a warm red-brown. Everything this word does starts from that one object — the flower pot on a balcony — and then travels to the colour it happens to be.
可以想成這樣一個東西：從地裡挖出來的土，捏好形狀，放進很熱的窯裡烤到硬。烤出來的東西又重又樸素，摸起來粗粗的，顏色是暖暖的紅棕。這個字所有的用法，都從這一個具體的東西出發——陽台上那個花盆——然後往外走到它剛好長成的那個顏色上去。
From the word’s history
Borrowed from Italian terra ('earth') + cotta ('baked'): baked earth.
來源是義大利文 terra（土）加 cotta（烤過的），字面就是「烤過的土」。這個字面幾乎等於它的核心畫面，所以整個字讀起來就是那個花盆本身。
Wiktionary entry for terracotta (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1076278061): "Borrowed from Italian terra ('earth') + cotta ('baked')."
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。