Both Uses of
fathom
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace only because I had not fathomed its deeper import.†
p. 31.1 *fathomed = came to understand
- "People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic—yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe—"ye, that have loved me!†
p. 169.3fathomless = impossible to understandstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in fathomless means without and reverses the meaning of fathom. This is the same pattern you see in words like harmless, fearless, and powerless.
Definition:
to come to understand