to fathom why
4
7.0
- phrasal verb
:
entender por qué
- I cannot fathom why so many previous comments are hostile.
- hard to fathom why
- difficult to fathom why
- still can't fathom why
Like, I couldn't fathom why you would want to do that job, right?
- Like, I couldn't fathom why you would want to do that job, right?
Examples
-
Martin couldn't fathom why everything was so complicated.
Fiction book (1996) -
At this point, I cannot fathom why that seemed so bad, frankly.
Blog text (9) -
None of them could fathom why this should be so.
Fiction book (1994) -
It's really not that hard to fathom why this poorly placed sign might pose a risk.
Blog text (5) -
I just can't fathom why you did it.
-
I can't even fathom why this happened.
Blog text (26) -
Norman couldn't begin to fathom why she would want to start over as a lab tech, but there it was.
Fiction book (2002) -
They could not fathom why Defoe was reluctant to turn in people who saved his life.
Fiction book (2000) -
I can't fathom why they'd pass up the Smithsonian for the dumpster.
Blog text (9) -
I can never quite fathom why he makes those peculiar choices.
Synonyms
3
9.9
To understand something deeply and naturally
How Understood
4
7.0
146
4.1
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
925
3.6
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'fathom' means to comprehend and 'why' refers to the reason, so a learner who knows both words can infer 'to understand the reason for something'. The combination follows a straightforward verb + noun pattern found across languages, making the MWE transparently interpretable.
Etymology
The phrase fathom why comes from old sailors. Sailors used a marked rope called a 'fathom' to measure the sea and find its bottom, so to fathom something came to mean 'reach the bottom' of an idea, and that's why fathom why means 'to understand the reason'.