fantasy

English

Alternative forms

• phantasie (archaic)
• phantasy (chiefly dated)

Etymology

From Old French fantasie (“fantasy”), from Latin phantasia (“imagination”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía, “apparition”). Doublet of fancy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfæntəsi/, /ˈfæntəzi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfæntəsi/, [ˈfæntɪ̈si], [ˈfæɾ̃ɪ̈si]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fantasy (countable and uncountable, plural fantasies)

1. That which comes from one's imagination.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, London, Act 1, Scene 1:

     Is not this something more than fantasy?

   • 1634, John Milton, Comus:

     A thousand fantasies / Begin to throng into my memory.

2. (literature) The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and the supernatural, imaginary worlds and creatures, etc.
3. A fantastical design.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 7, in The Scarlet Letter:

     Embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread.

4. (slang) The drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid.

Related terms

• fantasize

Derived terms

• fantasy football
• fantasy baseball
• fantasy wrestling
• high fantasy
• low fantasy

Translations

imagining

• Bulgarian: въображение (bg) n (vǎobražénie), фантазия (bg) f (fantázija)
• Catalan: fantasia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 幻想 (zh) (huànxiǎng)

• Dutch: fantasie (nl)
• Esperanto: fantazio (eo)
• Finnish: haaveilu (fi)
• French: fantasme (fr) m
• German: Fantasie (de) f

• Hungarian: agyszülemény (hu), fantázia (hu)
• Italian: fantasia (it) f
• Japanese: 幻想 (ja) (げんそう, gensō), 空想 (ja) (くうそう, kūsō), ファンタジー (fantajī), 狂想 (kyōsō)
• Latin: somnium n
• Persian: فانتزی‏‎ (fa) (fântezi)
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Romanian: fantezie (ro) f
• Russian: фанта́зия (ru) f (fantázija), воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije)
• Swedish: fantasi (sv) c

literary genre

• Bulgarian: фентази n (féntazi)
• Catalan: fantasia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奇幻 (zh) (qíhuàn)

• Czech: fantasy f
• Dutch: fantasy (nl)
• Finnish: fantasia (fi), fantasiakirjallisuus
• French: fantaisie (fr) f, fantasy (fr) f
• Georgian: ფენტეზი (penṭezi), ფანტასტიკა (panṭasṭiḳa)

• German: Fantasy (de) f
• Greek: φαντασία (el) f (fantasía), λογοτεχνία του φανταστικού f (logotechnía tou fantastikoú)
• Italian: fantasy (it) m
• Japanese: ファンタジー (fantajī)
• Persian: فانتزی‏‎ (fa) (fântezi)
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Russian: фанта́стика (ru) f (fantástika), фэ́нтези (ru) f (féntɛzi)
• Swahili: fantasia
• Swedish: fantasy (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: fantasie (nl)
• Hungarian: fantázia (hu)
• Indonesian: fantasi (id)

• Latin: somnium n, phantasia f
• Romanian: fantezie (ro) f

Verb

fantasy (third-person singular simple present fantasies, present participle fantasying, simple past and past participle fantasied)

1. (literary, psychoanalysis) To fantasize (about).
   • 2013, Mark J. Blechner, Hope and Mortality: Psychodynamic Approaches to AIDS and HIV:

     Perhaps I would be able to help him recapture the well-being and emotional closeness he fantasied his brother had experienced with his parents prior to his birth.

2. (obsolete) To have a fancy for; to be pleased with; to like.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cavendish to this entry?)

   • 1518, Thomas More; Robynson, transl., Utopia, published 1551:

     Which he doth most fantasy.

See also

• fancy

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Czech

Noun

fantasy f

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

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French

Noun

fantasy f (plural fantasys)

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)