different between fathometer vs fathom

English

Etymology

fathom (“nautical length measurement used for depth”) +? -meter

Noun

fathometer (plural fathometers)

1. (nautical) A depth finder that uses sound waves to determine the depth of water.
   • 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang (Ballantine Books, 2003), page 347:

     A Fathometer is just a vertical echo-ranger; its pings would sound the same and could drive a submarine out of position just as effectively as horizontal echo-ranging and might even make a contact.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English fathome, fadome, from Old English fæþm, fæþme (“outstretched or encircling arms, embrace, grasp, protection, interior, bosom, lap, breast, womb, fathom, cubit, power, expanse, surface”), from Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“embrace”), from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to spread out, extend”). Cognate with Low German fadem, faem (“a cubit, thread”), Dutch vadem, vaam (“fathom”), German Faden (“thread, filament, fathom”), Danish favn (“embrace, fathom”), Norwegian Bokmål favn (“embrace, fathom”), Swedish famn (“the arms, bosom, embrace”), Icelandic faðmur (“embrace”), Latin pate?, Ancient Greek ????????? (petánnumi), Ancient Greek ??????? (pétalos) [whence English petal].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæð?m/

Noun

fathom (plural fathoms)

1. (obsolete) Grasp, envelopment, control.
2. (units of measure, now usually nautical) An English unit of length for water depth notionally based upon the width of grown man's outstretched arms but standardized as 6 feet (about 1.8 m).

   Synonyms: brace, (obsolete) stade, (Greek) orguia
3. (units of measure) Various similar units in other systems.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Acts 27:28:

     And sounded, and found it twentie fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded againe, and found it fifteene fathoms.

4. (figuratively) Depth of insight, mental reach or scope.

Translations

Verb

fathom (third-person singular simple present fathoms, present participle fathoming, simple past and past participle fathomed)

1. (transitive, archaic) To encircle with outstretched arms, especially to take a measurement; to embrace.
2. (transitive) To measure the depth of, take a sounding of.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To get to the bottom of; to manage to comprehend; understand (a problem etc.).

   Synonyms: fathom out, figure out, puzzle out, work out

Translations

Derived terms

• fathomable
• fathometer
• fathomless
• fathom out
• unfathomable

See also

• deep six

Further reading

• fathom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fathom in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fathom at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fathom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia