# fathom

Pronunciation: say "FA-thuhm" US /ˈfæðəm/, UK /ˈfað(ə)m/

## Verb

1. To understand something difficult or puzzling, or get to the bottom of it, usually after careful thought or investigation; often used in the negative, and especially in British English often followed by out.
   - Simple: To understand something hard or puzzling after thinking about it, as in 'I can't fathom why he left.'
   - _I still can't fathom why he turned down such a generous offer._
   - _It took investigators months to fathom out how the money had vanished._
3. To measure the depth of water, especially by taking a sounding.
   - Simple: To measure how deep water is.
   - _Before good charts existed, captains would fathom an unfamiliar bay by dropping a weighted line over the side again and again._
   - _The crew fathomed the channel carefully before bringing the ship into the harbor._

## Noun

2. A unit of length equal to six feet (exactly 1.8288 meters), used chiefly for measuring the depth of water.
   - Simple: A measure of length equal to six feet (about 1.8 meters), mostly used for how deep water is.
   - _Near the jetty the water is barely a fathom deep at low tide._
   - _The old harbor charts give every depth in fathoms rather than meters._
4. A depth of no particular measure, used chiefly in the plural and in a figurative way.
   - Simple: A depth with no exact number given, usually used in the plural.
   - _Beneath his calm smile lay fathoms of sadness that even his closest friends never saw._
   - _Beneath his easy jokes lay fathoms of grief that no one at the office suspected._
5. A way of stating distance from shore by water depth: the point nearest the shore at which the water is as deep as the number quoted. *(US)*
   - Simple: A way to say how far from shore you are, by how deep the water is there.

## Noun

6. Depth of insight; the reach or scope of a person's mind. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: How deeply a person can understand things, or how far their mind can reach.
7. A firm hold or control over someone or something. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Control or power over something or someone.
9. The act of stretching one's arms out from the sides of the body so that they form a straight line at right angles to it. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Stretching your arms straight out to the sides, so they make one straight line.
10. Someone or something held in an embrace. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person or thing that someone hugs or holds in their arms.

## Verb

8. To encircle someone or something with outstretched arms, in particular so as to measure its circumference or, rarely, its length. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To reach your arms around something, mainly to measure how thick or long it is.
11. To hold someone or something closely in one's arms. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To hug someone or something.

## Origin

**Meanings 2, 4–7, 9–10** — The Proto-Indo-European root *pet-, *peth₂-, meaning "to spread out" or "to fly," led to Proto-Germanic *faþmaz and Proto-West Germanic *faþm, both meaning "outstretched arms, embrace, fathom." Old English fæþm meant "encircling or outstretched arms, embrace, grasp, power, fathom," and Middle English fathome or fadom named a unit of about six feet, or a six-foot depth in nautical soundings. Related words include Dutch vadem, German Faden, Old Norse faþmr and Swedish famn ("the arms, an embrace"), and, more distantly, Latin pateō and Ancient Greek pétalos ("broad, flat").
**Meanings 1, 3, 8, 11** — Proto-Germanic *faþmōjan, built on the noun *faþmaz ("outstretched arms, embrace, fathom"), became Old English fæðmian and then Middle English fathmen or fadmen. The Middle English verb meant to encircle with the arms or embrace, to feel or grope, and to measure by the ell, or perhaps by the fathom. Old High German fademōn and Old Norse faþma are cognates.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fathom (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).