different between gather vs understand

English

Alternative forms

• gether (obsolete or regional)

Etymology

From Middle English gaderen, from Old English gaderian (“to gather, assemble”), from Proto-West Germanic *gadur?n (“to bring together, unite, gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?ed?- (“to unite, assemble, keep”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æð?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æð?/
• Rhymes: -æð?(?)

Verb

gather (third-person singular simple present gathers, present participle gathering, simple past and past participle gathered)

1. To collect; normally separate things.
   1. Especially, to harvest food.

   2. To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.

   3. (intransitive) To congregate, or assemble.
      • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Tears

        Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.

   4. (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.

      • Their snow-ball did not gather as it went.

2. To bring parts of a whole closer.
   1. (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.

   2. (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.

   3. (architecture) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.
   4. (nautical) To haul in; to take up.

3. To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.

4. (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus

5. (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
6. To gain; to win.

Synonyms

• (to bring together): aggroup, togetherize; see also Thesaurus:round up

  (—to accumulate over time): accrue, add up; see also Thesaurus:accumulate

  (—to congregate): assemble, begather; see also Thesaurus:assemble

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

gather (plural gathers)

1. A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
2. The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
3. The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
4. (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
5. A gathering.
   • 2007, John Barnes, The Sky So Big and Black (Tor Books, ?ISBN):

     "I'll tell you all about it at the Gather, win or lose."

   • 2014, Paul Lederer, Dark Angel Riding (Open Road Media, ?ISBN):

     What bothered him more, he thought as he started Washoe southward, was Spikes's animosity, the bearded man's sudden violent reaction to his arrival at the gather.

Derived terms

• gathering iron

Translations

Anagrams

• Gareth, rageth

English

Alternative forms

• understaund (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan (“to understand”), from Proto-Germanic *under (“between”) + *standan? (“to stand”), equivalent to Old English under- (“between, inter-”) + standan (“to stand”). Cognate with Old Frisian understonda (“to understand, experience, learn”), Old High German understantan (“to understand”), Middle Danish understande (“to understand”). Compare also Saterland Frisian understunda, unnerstounde (“to dare, survey, measure”), Dutch onderstaan (“to undertake, presume”), German unterstehen (“to be subordinate”). More at inter-, stand.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?n(?)d?r-st?nd', IPA^(key): /(?)?nd??stænd/,
• (General American) enPR: ?n?d?r-st?nd', IPA^(key): /??nd??stænd/, [??????stænd], [??????ste??nd]
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /??nd???stand/
• Rhymes: -ænd
• Hyphenation: un?der?stand

Verb

understand (third-person singular simple present understands, present participle understanding, simple past and past participle understood)

1. (transitive) To grasp a concept fully and thoroughly, especially (of words, statements, art, etc.) to be aware of the meaning of and (of people) to be aware of the intent of.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 20:

     ‘I came back here, had a wank and finished that book.’
     ‘The Naked Lunch?’
     ‘Yeah.’
     ‘What did you reckon?’
     ‘Crap.’
     ‘You're just saying that because you didn't understand it,’ said Adrian.
     ‘I'm just saying that because I did understand it,’ said Tom. ‘Any road up, we'd better start making some toast.’

2. To believe, to think one grasps sufficiently despite potentially incomplete knowledge.

3. (humorous, rare, obsolete outside circus, acrobatics) To stand underneath, to support.

Usage notes

• In its sense of "imputing meaning", use is usually limited to the past participle understood.
• The obsolete perfect form understanded is occasionally found, e.g. in the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church.

Synonyms

• (to fully grasp a concept): apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok
• (to believe one grasps a concept): believe

Antonyms

• misunderstand

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• explain
• why

Further reading

• understand in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• understand in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• unstranded