Hold this one in your hand: a short handle and one small blade, the size of your palm. Your hand does all the work — you are close to the job, by a plant or standing at a wall. The blade picks up a small amount of something soft, carries it a short way, and puts it where you want it. Curve the blade and you can dig with it. the blade and you can spread with it. Everything else in this word comes from the spreading half: the action becomes a verb, and a layer that is spread on too becomes a way of talking about words that are laid on too too.
From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces trowel through Middle English trowell and Middle French truelle to Late Latin truella and Latin trulla, the small form of trua, a ladle. The starting picture is therefore a little scoop — a small blade that holds something soft on a short handle, which is still what every sense is built on.
依 Wiktionary，trowel 經中古英語 trowell、中古法語 truelle，上溯晚期拉丁文 truella 和拉丁文 trulla，而 trulla 是 trua（杓子）的小稱。所以起點的畫面就是「小杓子」：短柄加一片盛得住東西的葉子。今天不管是花園裡挖土，還是牆上抹泥，靠的都還是這個形狀。
Wiktionary (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:671518055): From Middle English trowell, from Middle French truelle, from Late Latin truella, from Latin trulla, diminutive of trua (ladle).
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