forgather means to assemble or gather together in one place, to gather up; to congregate. It carries an Arena rating of 1735, earned across 33 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, forgather ranks #2,327 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #3,234 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #4,079 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #4,404 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
forgather is pronounced /fəˈɡaðə/.
Why “forgather” is a great word
FORGATHER — [Verb] To assemble or congregate together. From Scots forgather, foregather, equivalent to the English prefix for- (an intensifier) + gather. Cognate with Dutch vergaderen ("to assemble") and German vergattern ("to assemble; to assign duty"). First recorded in English use in 1513 in a translation by Gavin Douglas. Unlike "assemble," which implies a deliberate and structured purpose, or "convene," which denotes a formal summons by authority, to forgather suggests a looser, more serendipitous convergence. It is the slow drift of neighbors to a garden fence, the unplanned clustering of friends by a hearth, or the quiet congregation of birds on a wire before flight—a testament to the gentle, gravitational pull that draws scattered things into a momentary, breathing whole.
Etymology
From Scots forgather, foregather (“to gather up, assemble”), equivalent to for- + gather. Cognate with Dutch vergaderen (“to assemble”), German vergattern (“to assemble; to assign duty”).
verb
- To assemble or gather together in one place, to gather up; to congregate.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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