▪ I. fantasy, phantasy, n.
(ˈfæntəsɪ)
Forms: α. 4–7 fantasi(e, -ye, -azie, -aisie, -aysie, -esi(e, -esy(e, -essy, (5 fantsy, fayntasie, feintasy), 5–6 fantosy, 6–7 fantacie, -y, 4– fantasy. β. 6– 8 phantasie, (6 -esie, 6–7 phant'sie, -'sy), 6– phantasy.
[a. OF. fantasie (Fr. fantaisie), (= Pr. fantazia, Sp., Pg. fantas{iacu}a, It. fantasia), ad. L. phantasia, a. Gr. ϕαντασία lit. ‘a making visible’, f. ϕαντάζειν to make visible, f. ϕαίνειν to show.
The senses of ϕαντασία from which the senses of the word in the mod. langs. are developed are: 1. appearance, in late Gr. esp. spectral apparition, phantom (so L. phantasia in Vulg.); 2. the mental process or faculty of sensuous perception; 3. the faculty of imagination. These senses passed through OF. into Eng., together with others (as delusive fancy, false or unfounded notion, caprice, etc.) which had been developed in late L., Romanic, or Fr. The shortened form fancy, which apparently originated in the 15th c., had in the time of Shakespeare become more or less differentiated in sense. After the revival of Greek learning, the longer form was often spelt phantasy, and its meaning was influenced by the Gr. etymon. In mod. use fantasy and phantasy, in spite of their identity in sound and in ultimate etymology, tend to be apprehended as separate words, the predominant sense of the former being ‘caprice, whim, fanciful invention’, while that of the latter is ‘imagination, visionary notion’.]
1. In scholastic psychology: † a. Mental apprehension of an object of perception; the faculty by which this is performed. Obs.
| [a 1382 Oresme in Meunier Ess. sur Oresme 179 Il entent par fantasie apprehension ou cognoissance sensitive des choses presentes.] |
| α c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 113 Þat place [þe brayn] is propre instrument of ymagynacioun þe which resceyveþ þinges þat comprehendiþ of fantasie [res a phantasia comprehensas]. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxiv. ii, These are the v. wyttes remeuing inwardly..common wytte..ymaginacyon, Fantasy, and estymacyon..And memory. 1675 Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. i. 76 Sense perceiveth sweetness by tast or smell, light and pulchritude by sight and fantasie. |
| β a 1618 Raleigh Rem. (1664) 126 According to the diversity of the eye, which offereth it unto the phantasie. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 478/2 It is..likely, that all living Creatures which have Eye-balls oblique and narrow..have a peculiar phantasie of Objects. 1669 A. Browne Ars Pict. (1675) 40 Light..is the cause..whereby coloured things are seen, whose Shapes and Images pass to the phantasie. |
† b. The image impressed on the mind by an object of sense.
Obs.| c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. (1866) 14 When the resone es cleryde fra all..fygours and fantasyes of creatures. 1596 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits xi. 155 Memorie supplieth none other office..than..to preserue the figures and fantasies of things. |
† 2. A spectral apparition, phantom; an illusory appearance.
Obs.| c 1325 Song of Yesterday 30 in E.E.P. (1862) 134 Þis worldly blis. Is but a fykel fantasy. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. xxv. (1495) 362 Moo fantasyes ben seen by nyghte than by daye. 1401 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 46 Somme fantasie of Fiton hath marrid thi mynde. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 31 Þe fantasy þus of hys Dreme Movyd hym mast to sla hys Eme. 1530 Palsgr. 172 Phantosme, a fantosy. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxi. 64 All is but fantesey and enchauntementes. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 365 Trowand that tyme it wes ane phantasie. a 1583 Grindal Fruitful Dial. Wks. (1843) 59 No bread..but certain fantasies of white and round. |
3. a. Delusive imagination, hallucination; the fact or habit of deluding oneself by imaginary perceptions or reminiscences. ?
Obs.| α 1340–70 Alisaunder 384 For fere, ne fantasie faile they nolde. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 1535 This fool of fantasie [sc. Cassandra]. 1574 R. Scot Hop Gard. (1578) 60 Such as haue Mountaynes in fantasie and beggery in possession. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. i. 54 You tremble and look pale: Is not this something more then Fantasie? 1658 S. Simpson Unbelief ix. 66 They thought it was but meer fantasie and imagination. |
| β a 1533 Frith Disput. Purgat. (1829) 83 Making..the elders..to wander in phantasies. 1654 Case of Commonwealth 50 If we falter, or be mis-led through phant'sie. 1675 Brooks Signal Presence of God 20 Raising such a phantasy in the Lyons that they looked upon Daniel..as on one that was a friend unto them. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 11/1 He will..be sometimes misled by his own phantasy. |
b. A day-dream arising from conscious or unconscious wishes or attitudes.
| 1926 G. Coster Psycho-Analysis ii. 35 The term phantasy is much used in analytical psychology, and the fact that its technical meaning differs subtly from its colloquial one leads to some confusion. A phantasy is a day-dream in which desire, unfulfilled in the world of reality, finds an imaginary fulfilment or satisfaction. 1957 P. Lafitte Person in Psychol. ix. 120 The Rorschach test invites him to enact his very vaguest fantasies, as when he sees pictures in the fire or on the wall. |
4. a. Imagination; the process or the faculty of forming mental representations of things not actually present. (
Cf. fancy n. 4.) Also
personified. Now usually with sense influenced by association with
fantastic or
phantasm: Extravagant or visionary fancy.
In early use not clearly distinguished from 3; an exercise of poetic imagination being conventionally regarded as accompanied by belief in the reality of what is imagined.
| α 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 41 The Idea of her person represents it selfe an object to my fantasie. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 35 The soules swift Pegasus, the fantasie. a 1631 Donne Elegie Poems (1633) 153 When you are gone, and Reason gone with you, Then Fantasie is Queene. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 52 Ever in my distresses..has Fantasy turned, full of longing to that unknown Father. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 176 Imagination, as it is too often misunderstood, is mere fantasy, the image-making power common to all who have the gift of dreams. |
| β 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1567) 17 a, Nature is a righte that phantasie hath not framed. 1672–3 Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 130 You have attracted by force of phantasy some extraordinary Spirit to your assistance. 1704 Newton Opticks i. ii. viii. 120 By the power of phantasy we see Colours in a Dream. 1831 Lytton Godolph xxvii, Volktman himself, in the fulness of his northern phantasy, [could not] have sculptured forth a better image. 1837–8 Sir W. Hamilton Logic ii. (1870) III. 22 We may view it in phantasy as black or white. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) IX. xiv. vii 258 note, Their union with the Deity was..through the phantasy. |
b. A mental image.
| 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Grace before meat, To the temperate fantasies of the famished Son of God. a 1853 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vi. 81 Our creative shaping intellect projected its own fantasies. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. vi. xlviii, Fantasies moved within her like ghosts. |
c. A product of imagination, fiction, figment.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 36 Iapers and Iangelers..Founden hem fantasyes. 1399 Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 371 If ȝe ffynde ffables or ffoly ther amonge, or ony ffantasie yffeyned that no ffrute is in. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 147/1 Centaurs, Satyrs, Griffins, &c. [are] Forced Figures..Fiction or Fantacy..to express a Novelty. |
d. An ingenious, tasteful, or fantastic invention or design.
| α c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxxii. 123 (Harl. MS.) A silkyne gyrdil, sotilly i-made; for the damyselle comunely lovithe swiche fantasys. 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes (1561) Y vj a, Some questions of thys rule maye be varied above 1000 waies; but I would have you forget suche fantasies, tyll a time of more leysure. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxiii, There was a monstrous fantasy of rusty iron. |
| β 1542–3 Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 1 Balades, plaies, rimes, songes, and other phantasies. 1821 Keats Isabel xlvii, A soiled glove, whereon Her silk had played in purple phantasies. |
e. esp. in
Music; a fantasia. (
Cf. 6.)
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 181 The..chiefest kind of musick which is made without a dittie is the fantasie, that is, when a musician taketh a point at his pleasure, and wresteth and turneth it as he list. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. x. 34 This is called the Dupla or Semibreve Time..its Mood..is usual in Anthems, Fantasies, &c. |
f. A genre of literary compositions.
| 1949 (title) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 1954 M. F. Rodell Mystery Fiction ii. 4 Mysteries belong to the vast category of escape fiction. Westerns, ‘romances’, historical novels, and fantasies (other than satires) all belong in the same category. 1955 F. Brown Angels & Spaceships 9 Fantasy deals with things that are not and cannot be. Science fiction deals with things that can be, that some day may be. |
5. a. A supposition resting on no solid grounds; a whimsical or visionary notion or speculation.
Now more emphatically contemptuous than
fancy n.| α c 1400 Destr. Troy 2669 His olde fader fantasi þai filet in hert. c 1440 Generydes 4652 Leve all these fantesies..ye shall not fynde it thus. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 166 b, The mynde..is moost apte to..waueryng fantasyes aboute dyuerse thynges. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 953 The Minds of the common People would be divided, according as any one would teach his Fantasies. 1876 Whitney Sights & Ins. II. xiv. 443 All that would be to them less than fancy—mere fantasy. 1878 Morley Vauvenargues Crit. Misc. 20 Many pernicious and destructive fantasies. |
| β 1586 Cogan Haven Health ccxliii. (1636) 306 Vaine..is their phantasie that thinke it ungodly to flee from..the plague. a 1610 Healey Epictetus Man. (1636) 30 Keepe thy minde firme against all such phantasies. 1858 R. A. Vaughan Ess. & Rev. I. 6 Not a phantasy in religion..but might there soar or flutter. |
† b. in my fantasy:
= ‘as I imagine’; modestly used for ‘in my opinion’.
Obs.| α 1543 Recorde Gr. Artes (1561) L j, And yet in my simple fantasy these thinges offer them-selves..to be studied for aboute progression. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 191 In mine own fantasie it wanteth not the feete of sound reason to stand upon. |
| β 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 237 There standeth a Towne yet called Sturmere, which (in my phantasie) sufficiently mainteineth the knowledge of this matter. |
6. Caprice, changeful mood; an instance of this; a caprice, whim.
† Often in
at, after, according to, upon one's own fantasy (
obs.).
| α a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 23 Alle good women..aught to leve all suche fantasyes. 1490 Caxton Eneydos vi. 25 His wyf..he loued..of fyne loue wythout fayntasie. 1519 Interl. Four Elem. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 7 Every man after his fantasy Will write his conceit. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. i. 146 Whosoeuer shall kill his souldier vpon his owne fantasie, without iust cause. 1649 Milton Eikon. xi. (1851) 420 The Kingdom..must depend in great exigencies upon the fantasie of a Kings reason. 1679–1714 Burnet Hist. Ref., It was..out of no light fantasy..that he thus refused it. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles vi. xvii, Fate plays her wonted fantasy..with thee and me. 1883 C. F. Woolson For the Major iv, Little ways..considered to belong to the ‘fantasies of genius’. |
| β 1548 Hall Chron. 137 b, The Dolphyn tooke upon hym, the rule..orderyng causes..after his awne..phantasie. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. v. 55 Our strength and labours were idely consumed to fulfill his phantasies. |
† 7. Inclination, liking, desire.
Obs.| α c 1374 Chaucer Former Age 51 The lambyssh poeple..Hadden no fantesye to debate. c 1386 ― Miller's T. 5 Al his fantasye Was torned for to lerne astrologye. c 1450 Merlin 213 Soche a fantasie fill in his herte that he cowde not it remeve. 1462 Paston Lett. No. 435 II. 83 If..ther be sent swhyche downe to tak a rewyll as the pepyll hathe a fantsy in. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 158 Throw fantasie of this Roxiana, Of hir sic plesour he had. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. I. 4 He fell into a fantasie and desire to.. know how farre that land stretched. a 1618 Raleigh Rem. (1644) 83 Every man prefers his fantasie in that appetite, before all other worldly desires. |
| β 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 65/1 Diuerse men [worship] diuerse gods; so as euerie one hath in himselfe a mind or phantasie to worship. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as
fantasy-building vbl. n. and
ppl. a.;
fantasy-life,
fantasy-world.
| 1938 Tablet 1 Jan. 20/2 Now it is very strange that these judgments of her contemporaries should fit in so exactly with the present day estimate of Teresa as a fantasy-building neurotic.., unable at times to distinguish between imaginative and objective reality. 1959 H. Read Conc. Hist. Mod. Painting vii. 287 An immense effort to rid the mind of that corruption which, whether it has taken the form of fantasy-building or repression..constitutes a false witness to sensation or experience. |
| 1937 ‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! i. 12 They have their tenure in remaining—remote, jewelled and magical—a focus for the fantasy-life of thousands. 1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day 22 It is said that an only child develops a particularly vivid fantasy-life. |
| 1920 T. P. Nunn Education vii. 83 Prefers his fantasy-world to reality. 1955 A. C. Smith Speaking Eye vi. 63 The other chairs were littered with film magazines... The fantasy world of sex. |
▸
attrib. orig. U.S. Designating a competition or league in which participants create imaginary teams by selecting players from an existing sports league, and score points according to the players' actual performances;
esp. in
fantasy league. Also preceding the name of the sport on which a particular competition is based, as
fantasy football,
fantasy cricket,
fantasy baseball, etc.
Cf. earlier
rotisserie n.| 1984 United Press Internat. Newswire (Nexis) 20 Mar. This is a fantasy league in which you can own and manage a major league team... The pennant winner is he-she who puts together the best team. 1991 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 28 Sept. 38 The Fantasy League.., who invite participants to pick their own imaginary teams from Football League players and go up or down according to their choices' real-life fortunes on the pitch. 1999 Wells Jrnl. (Electronic ed.) 30 Sept. Following on from the success of fantasy cricket, which this week concluded with the presentation of prizes to top managers on Monday, Mid Somerset Newspapers' fantasy soccer competition is soon to return. 2001 Baseball Weekly (Electronic ed.) 31 Jan. I was looking forward to the Super Bowl mainly for two reasons: The squirrels of Pamplona..and the kickoff of the fantasy baseball preparation season. |
▪ II. fantasy, v. (
ˈfæntəsɪ)
Forms: α. 5–7
fantasie,
-ye, 5–6
fantesye, 6
fantase,
-aise, 7
fant'sy, 5–
fantasy. β. 6–7
phantasie,
-y, (6
phantasey, 7
phantacy,
-zy), 9
phantasy.
[a. OF. fantasie-r, f. fantasie fantasy n.] 1. a. trans. = fancy v. 1; rarely,
to fantasy with oneself.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas Prol. 3 Men of craft may..Fantasien in their inward sight Devises newe. 1543 Grafton Contn. Harding 496 Dreames..his awne feare fantesieth. 1547–8 Ordre of Communion 1 Euery manne phantasying and deuisyng a sondery waie by hymself. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 23/1 It was not the same very present Body of Christ, as the Priests did phantasie. a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1609) 5 As wise men have..fantasied foure simple bodies which they call elements. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 182 The image of the yong gentleman was well phantazied in her brain. 1818 Keats Endym. 509 A dream..so phantasied. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. II. 17 He fantasied in his imagination a kind of religion, half Catholic, half Reformed. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female xii. 262 Behind that schoolgirl complexion..could be phantasied many sorts of conditions. 1960 20th Cent. Dec. 519 It is ludicrous to fantasy ‘disinventing’ the hydrogen bomb. 1970 New Society 31 Dec. 1157/1 The long-termers only occasionally fantasy or talk with each other about various styles of ‘making-out’ on release. |
b. with
obj. and
inf. or object clause.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. ii, Day by day cast and fantesyeth How his venim may..Upon this Jason be fully execute. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 51 a, Som dyd phantasey one thyng to be the cause and som an other. 1582 Bentley Mon. Matrones 77 Fantasing with themselves that I doo it..of hatred. 1661 Boyle Style of Script. 51 The Syrian Leper..vainly fant'sied, that Gods appointment could not put a difference between things that knew no other. |
c. absol. or intr.| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. John x. 13 He fantasieth thus; In case thei go to wracke, what than? |
† 2. trans. To wear the appearance (ϕαντασία) of.
Obs. rare—1.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad xxiii. 60 At every part the form did comprehend His likeness; his fair eyes, his voice, his stature, every weed His person wore, it fantasied. |
† 3. To take a fancy or liking to; to be favourably inclined to; to fall in love with. Also with
inf., to ‘take it into one's head’ (to do something).
Cf. fancy v. 8.
Obs.| 1548 Hall Chron. 194 b, He..favored her suyte, but muche more phantasied her person. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 4 b, As if one should phantasy to praise a Gose before any other beast. 1592 Warner Alb. Eng. vii xxxiv. (1612) 168 Death, late feared, now she fantaseth. 1641 Prynne Antip. 79 That he [the King] should neither phantacy nor regard the serious Petition of the importunate Commons. |
| absol. 1560 Becon Treat. Fasting xi. Wks. ii. 89 b, Nether do they direct their fastes vnto any godly end, but as euery one fantasieth, so do they fast. |
4. intr. To play fantasias; to extemporize.
rare (but often in Carlyle).
| 1840 Carlyle Wks. (1858) II. 323 He [Hoffmann] could fantasy to admiration on the harpsichord. 1858 ― Fredk. Gt. II. x. vi. 650 Fantasying on the flute in an animated strain. |
Hence
ˈfantasying vbl. n.| 1543 Recorde Gr. Artes (1561) Z v b, You should..not have taken a question of your owne fantasying. 1555 L. Saunders Let. in Coverdale Lett. Martyrs (1564) 184 The fantasing of the flesh-pottes of Egypte. 1607 Schol. Disc. agst. Antichrist ii. ix. 135 We are charged with a Corinthian fantasying of mens persons. 1932 O. D. Leavis Fiction & Reading Public i. iii. 54 A habit of fantasying will lead to maladjustment in actual life. 1960 I. Bennett Del. & Neur. Childr. iii. 69 ‘Bouts’ of lying and fantasying to get other boys into trouble. |