All 4 Uses of
fathom
in
Ulysses, by James Joyce
- Full fathom five thy father lies.†
Chpt 3 *fathom = come to understand
- pedigree together with prime premiated milchcows and beeves: and there is ever heard a trampling, cackling, roaring, lowing, bleating, bellowing, rumbling, grunting, champing, chewing, of sheep and pigs and heavyhooved kine from pasturelands of Lusk and Rush and Carrickmines and from the streamy vales of Thomond, from the M'Gillicuddy's reeks the inaccessible and lordly Shannon the unfathomable, and from the gentle declivities of the place of the race of Kiar, their udders distended with superabundance of milk and butts of butter and rennets of cheese and farmer's firkins and targets of lamb and crannocks of corn and oblong eggs in great hundreds, various in size, the agate with this dun.†
Chpt 12unfathomable = not capable of being understoodstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unfathomable means not and reverses the meaning of fathomable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- was, he was bound to admit, an exceedingly plucky deed which he could not too highly praise, so that frankly he was utterly at a loss to fathom what earthly reason could be at the back of it except he put it down to sheer cussedness or jealousy, pure and simple.†
Chpt 16fathom = come to understand
- Interesting to fathom it seemed to him from a motive of curiosity, pure and simple, was whether it was the traffic that created the route or viceversa or the two sides in fact.†
Chpt 16
Definitions:
-
(1)
(fathom as in: can't fathom) to come to understand
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Fathom can also refer to a unit of measure for water depth (6 feet), or to the act of measuring the depth of water.