Start with a handful of hay. Pull at it and one thin strand comes away, small enough to sit on your sleeve without falling off. That loose thin strand is a wisp. English then keeps the shape and changes the material: the same thin, small, separated line made of smoke, of steam, of mist. And once the shape can be made of smoke, it can also move — smoke wisping from a chimney is that same thin line, drawn upward.
From the word’s history
The source entry traces wisp to Middle English wispe, with Dutch wisp and Scandinavian visp meaning a bundle or handful of hay or straw.
來源資料把 wisp 追到中古英文 wispe，並指出荷蘭文 wisp、北歐的 visp 都指「一把乾草」。這條線索正好對上核心畫面：這個字最早講的是手裡抓得起來的一小把草，今天的「一縷頭髮」「一縷煙」都還留著那個大小和鬆散感。
Wiktionary extract supplied in packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:626726277:18875)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。