The fathom is a unit of length in the imperial unit system and uses the symbol ftm.
One fathom is equal to 6 feet or 1.8288m.
The phrase fathom derives from an old English derivative of a Viking / Danish word "favn" meaning emracing a pair of arms or a pair of oustretched hands.
The fathom is mostly used in the nautical world to describe depths of water.
The millimetre (American spelling millimeter) is a unit of length and is a multiple of the SI unit metre. It uses the symbol mm.
There are 1000 mm in 1 m and 10 mm in 1 cm. From this one can derive that there are 0.03937 in.
The millimetre is sometimes verbally abbreviated to 'mil' - which can cause confusion in the US as there is a unit there that means thousandth of an inch.