Hold a rose stem in your hand. You can hold it — it is not impossible — but you cannot hold it , and if you close your fist the thorns go in. Every use of thorny can be read off that feeling in the hand: not "you must not touch this", but "touching this has a cost".
可以想成手裡握著一根玫瑰的莖。握得住，不是不能碰，但不能隨便握；手一用力，刺就進去了。thorny 的每一個用法都可以從這個手感去想：重點不是「不准碰」，而是「碰了要付出代價」。有些植物是真的長著刺，有些問題一提出來就會扎到人，有些人靠近時也要小心。
From the word’s history
thorn + -y, from Old English þorniġ, so the word literally says "having thorns"; the hand-feel meaning is the oldest one.
來源記錄顯示這個字是 thorn（刺）加 -y（帶有…的），可以追到古英文 þorniġ。也就是說，字面上它本來就只是「長著刺的」。所以實際的刺是最早的意思，其他用法都是後來借用同一個手感。
packet evidence: Wiktionary etymology for thorny — "From Middle English thorny, þorny, þorni, from Old English þorniġ… By surface analysis, thorn + -y." (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1076335126:20806)
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