Picture a small thing in someone's hand that has no name. It clearly does something, it clearly belongs somewhere, and the word for it is simply gone. Widget is the sound English makes in that gap. Because it points at nothing in particular, it can be dropped into any gap of that shape — the part on the kitchen table, the product in a textbook factory, and later the little block on a screen.
From the word’s history
The packet's source entry says the word was coined by the American playwright George S. Kaufman for his 1924 play Beggar on Horseback. A word invented for a stage product has no real referent to start with, which is exactly why it settles so easily into the empty-slot job the core image describes.
封包裡的字源資料寫著，這個字是美國劇作家 George S. Kaufman 為 1924 年的劇作 Beggar on Horseback 造出來的。一個為了舞台上的產品而發明的字，本來就沒有指涉對象，所以它特別適合核心畫面裡那個工作：站在空缺上，替任何東西頂一下。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet: coined by American playwright George S. Kaufman in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924) (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:626563289:16715).
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。