Mysteries of Vernacular: Clue.
通用俗语的谜团：Clue。
Something that serves to guide in the solution of a mystery or crime
Clue是指可以用来指导解决一个神秘问题或犯罪活动的东西。
Before the popularization of detective fiction,
在侦探小说普及之前，
clue was just as frequently spelled 'clew' and both spellings historically meant a ball of yarn or thread.
clue经常拼写成'clew'，历史上，这两种拼写都指的是一个毛线球或尼龙球。
But the current definition developed from Greek Mythology.
而现如今的定义则是从希腊神话中发展而来的。
Theseus, King of Athens was to be sacrificed to the Minotaur -- a half-Man, half-Bull that lived in an almost impossible labyrinth.
据说，雅典国王忒修斯当时要献祭给弥诺陶洛斯--一个半人半牛、居住在迷宫中的怪物。
In order to survive, Theseus would have to locate and kill the Minotaur, and then find his way back out of the labyrinth.
为了活下来，忒修斯必须要找到并杀掉弥诺陶洛斯，之后找到逃出这个迷宫的路。

Luckily, Theseus had a lover, Ariadne, who gave him exactly what he needed to escape the maze -- a clue, or ball of string.
幸运的是，忒修斯的情人阿里阿德涅，给了他一个可以帮助他逃离该迷宫的东西--一个clue，也就是一个线团。
When Theseus entered the labyrinth, he laid down the string as he went.
当忒修斯进入到迷宫时，他边走边铺开了这个线团。
And after killing the Minotaur, wounded up as he returned, following its certain path out of the maze.
在杀了弥诺陶洛斯之后，他很兴奋，按照既定线路逃出了迷宫。
From Chaucer's times, allusions to this clue to a maze had been linked with various methods of problem solving.
从乔叟时代开始，对于这个有关迷宫的clue的典故，就已经和各种解决问题的方法联系在一起了。
So that by the 17th century, all associations with a ball of string had been forgotten.
因此到了17世纪，所有与一个线团有关的联系就都被遗忘了。
And the word 'clue' now solely means guide to a solution. Mystery solved.
而现在，clue这个词就仅仅指“引导一个解决方案（线索）”。谜团破解。