fathom

英 ['fæð(ə)m] 美 ['fæðəm]

TEM4IELTSGRE

解释

vt. 看穿；彻底了解；测量…的深度
n. 英寻（测量水深的长度单位）

※ 提供单词"fathom"的中文意思、发音示范及音标对照，中英文词源、例句和用法等。

中文词源

fathom 法寻，彻底了解

来自PIE*pet, 展开，伸展，词源同feather, compete. 用作长度单位法寻，约略等于成人双臂展开长度。引申词义探索，彻底了解。

英文词源

fathom: fathom: [OE] The underlying etymological meaning of fathom appears to be ‘stretching out, spreading’. It probably comes ultimately from the Indo-European base *pot-, *pet-, which also produced Latin patēre ‘be open’ (source of English patent) and Greek pétalos ‘outspread’ (source of English petal). Its Germanic descendant was *fath-, which produced the noun *fathmaz, direct ancestor of Old English fæthm.

Here, the notion of ‘stretching out’ seems to have spread via ‘stretching out the arms’ to, on the one hand ‘embrace’ (and one meaning of Old English fæthm was ‘embrace, bosom’), and on the other ‘length spanned by outstretched arms’ – about six feet.
=> patent, petal
fathom (n.): Old English fæðm "length of the outstretched arm" (a measure of about six feet), also "arms, grasp, embrace," and, figuratively "power," from Proto-Germanic *fathmaz "embrace" (cognates: Old Norse faðmr "embrace, bosom," Old Saxon fathmos "the outstretched arms," Dutch vadem "a measure of six feet"), from PIE *pot(ə)-mo-, from root *petə- "to spread, stretch out" (see pace (n.)). It has apparent cognates in Old Frisian fethem, German faden "thread," which OED explains by reference to "spreading out." As a unit of measure, in an early gloss it appears for Latin passus, which was about 5 feet.
fathom (v.): Old English fæðmian "to embrace, surround, envelop," from a Proto-Germanic verb derived from the source of fathom (n.); cognates: Old High German fademon, Old Norse faþma. The meaning "take soundings" is from c. 1600; its figurative sense of "get to the bottom of, penetrate with the mind, understand" is from 1620s. Related: Fathomed; fathoming.

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例句和用法

1. I really couldn't fathom what Steiner was talking about.: 我真搞不懂斯坦纳在说些什么。

2. We're trying to fathom out what's going on.: 我们在尽力搞清楚发生了什么事情。

3. It is hard to fathom the pain felt at the death of a child.: 丧子之痛是难以体会的。

4. I can not fathom his meaning.: 我不能彻底理解他的意思.

5. I'm having difficulty using my video editing equipment and can't fathom out the various connections.: 我不会使用视频编辑设备，而且搞不清各种各样的连接。