fantastical, a. and n.
(fænˈtæstɪkəl)
[f. fantastic a. and n. + -al1.]
A. adj.
† 1. = fantastic a. 1. Obs.
| α c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iv. 1545 My wordes wer not fantasticall..I told youe no lesinge. 1529 More Conf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1182/2 With this fantastical fear of hers, I wold be loth to haue her in myne house. c 1530 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 43 Than me thynkithe y see youre likenes: Hit is nat so, it is fantasticalle. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 61 Our Pains are real Things, and all Our Pleasures but fantastical. |
| β a 1533 Frith Disput. Purgat. (1829) 160 A place that..more properly confuteth this phantastical purgatory, than doth this same text. 1684 Burnet Th. Earth ii. 100 When anything great is represented to us, it appears phantastical. 1728 T. Sheridan Persius vi. (1739) 99 note, Tertullian..runs the phantastical Genealogy thus. |
† b. Of opinions: Irrational, baseless. (Passing into sense 6.)
Obs.| α a 1546 Joye in Gardiner Declar. Art. Joye (1546) 53 He..conceyueth a certayne fantasticall opinion therof [of fayth]. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. i. iii. §2. 52 Which only false Religion or fantastical Opinion..is able to effect. |
| β 1555 Eden Decades Pref. to Rdr. (Arb.) 53 Mys⁓shapened with phantastical opinions. 1599 Hayward 1st Pt. Hen. IV 91 He said that the lawes of the realme were in his head..by reason of which phantasticall opinion, he destroyed noblemen. |
† 2. = fantastic 2. Chiefly in
fantastical body in reference to the heresy of the Docetæ.
Obs.| α 1533 Frith Answ. More (1829) 174 Fantastical apparitions. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 308 Ye make of it [the Sacrament] a thing so fantastical, that ye imagine a Body without Flesh. 1728 Earbery tr. Burnet's St. Dead I. 220 That the Body of Christ upon Earth was a fantastical one, as the Gnosticks held. |
| β 1555 Ridley Wks. 200 Marcion..said that Christ had but a phantastical body. 1642 R. Carpenter Experience ii. vii. 185 Hee did not take a phantasticall body in the Incarnation. |
† b. Of colours:
= emphatical 5.
Obs.| 1666 Hooke Microgr. 168 These colours are onely fantastical ones. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Phantastical Colours, such as are exhibited by the Rainbow, Triangular Glass Prism, the Surface of very thin Muscovy Glass, &c. |
† 3. = fantastic a. 3.
Obs.| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 125 His lyghtes be euer eyther fantasticall or els corporall. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. viii. (Arb.) 35 Euen so is the phantasticall part of man..a representer of the best images..to the soule. 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. ii. xxxv, The Orb Phantastick must exert All life phantasticall. |
† b. Pertaining to the passion of love. See
fancy 8 b.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1594 H. Willobie in Shaks. C. Praise 7 Sodenly infected with the contagion of a fantasticall fit. |
4. = fantastic 4.
| α 1531 Elyot Gov. i. i, They be nat in commune (as fantasticall foles wolde haue all thyngs). 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxxi. (1612) 157 Loue is Fantasticall in Women. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 671 The herne is..very fantasticall, as not giuen to stay in any place, but such as pleaseth him verie well. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 311 The gratifying of a fantastical Appetite. 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing II. ii. vi. 307 The fantastical changes of the fashion. 1862 Mrs. Oliphant Last Mortimers I. v. 27 A pretty fantastical young girl. |
| β 1555 Eden Decades 314 Many iudged hym phantasticall. 1621–51 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. ii. 319 An affected phantastical carriage. 1693 Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 129 The..vain and phantastical abuse of this Stinking Weed. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 30 ¶2 The Oxonians are phantastical now they are Lovers. |
† 5. = fantastic 5.
Obs.| a 1618 Raleigh Mahomet (1637) 24 The care and use of his fantasticall Law. |
6. = fantastic 6.
| α 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 79 The first suite is hot and hasty like a Scotch jigge (and full as fantasticall). 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. III. ii. 111 Canons..in triangular and other fantastical forms. 1830 D'Israeli Chas. I, III. viii. 177 A portrait which, however fantastical, may still bear some remarkable resemblances. |
| β a 1613 Overbury A Wife (1638) 166 Our new phantasticall building. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 151 ¶5 An Occasion wherein Vice makes so phantastical a Figure. |
† B. n. One who has fanciful ideas or notions.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. viii. (Arb.) 34 Who so is studious in th' Arte [of Poesie]..they call him in disdayne a phantasticall. 1616 J. Deacon Tobacco tortured 57 Alas poore Tobacco..thou that hast bene hitherto accompted..the Fantasticals foretresse. |