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”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to render visible”), from φαντός (phantós, “visible”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to make visible”); from the same root as φάος (pháos, “light”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti, from the root *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of fancy, fantasia, phantasia, and phantasy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæntəsi/

• 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.

   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎^[1]:

     The whole position was so tremendous and so absolutely unearthly, that I believe it actually lulled our sense of terror, but to this hour I often see it in my dreams, and at its mere phantasy wake up covered with cold sweat.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 92:

     Try as hard as it can, empirical science cannot come up with a naturalistic explanation; it can only slip into fantasies that make scientists feel good because they are in harmony with their opinions, prejudices, and unconscious assumptions about the nature of reality.

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.

Derived terms

• dark fantasy
• fantasy baseball
• fantasy cricket
• fantasy football
• fantasy wrestling
• high fantasy
• low fantasy

 

Related terms

• fantasize

Descendants

All are borrowed.

• Armenian: ֆենտեզի (fentezi)
• Belarusian: фэнтэзі (fentezi)
• Bulgarian: фентъзи (fentǎzi)
• Czech: fantasy
• Dutch: fantasy
• French: fantasy
• Georgian: ფენტეზი (penṭezi)
• German: Fantasy
• Hindi: फँतासी (phãtāsī)
• Italian: fantasy
• Korean: 판타지 (pantaji)
• Malay: fantasi
• Polish: fantasy
• Russian: фэнтези (fɛntezi)
• Swahili: fantasia
• Swedish: fantasy
• Ukrainian: фентезі (fentezi)

Translations

that which comes from one's imagination

• Arabic: خَيَال‎ (ar) m (ḵayāl)
• Armenian: երևակայություն (erewakayutʿyun), ֆանտազիա (hy) (fantazia)
• Belarusian: фанта́зія f (fantázija), выабражэ́нне n (vyabražénnje), уяўле́нне (be) n (ujaŭljénnje), вы́мысел m (výmysjel)
• Bulgarian: въображе́ние (bg) n (vǎobražénie), фанта́зия (bg) f (fantázija)
• Catalan: fantasia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 幻想 (zh) (huànxiǎng), 空想 (zh) (kōngxiǎng)

• Czech: fantazie (cs) f, výmysl m
• Danish: fantasi c
• Dutch: fantasie (nl)
• Esperanto: fantazio (eo)
• Finnish: kuvittelu (fi), kuvitelma (fi), mielikuva (fi)
• French: fantaisie (fr) f, imaginaire (fr) m, fantasme (fr) m
• German: Fantasie (de) f
• Hindi: कल्पना (hi) f (kalpanā)
• Hungarian: agyszülemény (hu), fantázia (hu)
• Ido: fantazio (io)
• 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)
• Kazakh: қиял (qïyal)
• Korean: 환상(幻想) (ko) (hwansang), 공상 (ko) (gongsang), 상상 (ko) (sangsang), 판타지 (ko) (pantaji)
• Kyrgyz: кыял (qıyal)
• Latin: somnium n
• Persian: فانتزی‎ (fa) (fântezi), خیال‌‎ (xeyâl)
• Polish: fantazja (pl) f, wyobraźnia (pl) f, wymysł (pl) m
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Romanian: fantezie (ro) f
• Russian: фанта́зия (ru) f (fantázija), воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije), вы́мысел (ru) m (výmysel)
• Slovak: fantázia f, predstava f
• Slovene: fantazija f
• Spanish: fantasia f
• Swedish: fantasi (sv) c
• Tajik: хаёл (xayol)
• Thai: ความเพ้อฝัน (th), การฝันเฟื่อง
• Turkish: hayal (tr)
• Ukrainian: фанта́зія f (fantázija), уя́ва f (ujáva), уя́влення (uk) n (ujávlennja), ви́мисел m (výmysel), ви́гадка f (výhadka), ви́гад m (výhad)
• Uzbek: xayol (uz), fantaziya (uz)

literary genre

• Albanian: fantazi (sq) f
• Arabic: فَنْتَازِيَا‎ f (fantāziyā)
• Armenian: ֆենտեզի (hy) (fentezi), ֆանտաստիկա (hy) (fantastika)
• Belarusian: фэ́нтэзі f (féntezi), фанта́стыка f (fantástyka)
• Bulgarian: фе́нтъзи n (féntǎzi)
• Catalan: fantasia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奇幻 (zh) (qíhuàn)

• Czech: fantasy (cs) 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)
• Hindi: फँतासी f (phãtāsī)
• Italian: fantasy (it) m
• Japanese: ファンタジー (fantajī)
• Korean: 판타지 (ko) (pantaji)
• Persian: فانتزی‎ (fa) (fântezi)
• Polish: fantasy (pl) n
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Romanian: literatură fantastică (ro) f
• Russian: фанта́стика (ru) f (fantástika), фэ́нтези (ru) n (fɛ́ntɛzi)
• Slovene: fantastika f, fantazija f
• Swahili: fantasia
• Swedish: fantasy (sv)
• Thai: แฟนตาซี, จินตนิมิต
• Ukrainian: фе́нтезі f (féntezi), фанта́стика f (fantástyka)

fantastical design

slang: gamma-hydroxybutyric acid — See also translations at gamma-hydroxybutyric acid

• Finnish: gamma (fi)

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: ^{(please verify)} fantasie (nl)
• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} fantázia (hu)
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} fantasi (id)

• Latin: ^{(please verify)} somnium n, ^{(please verify)} phantasia f
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} 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.
   • 1641, George Cavendish, Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe

     The kyng fantasied so much his daughter Anne that almost everything began to grow out of frame and good order

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

     Which he doth most fantasy.

3. (transitive) To imagine; to conceive mentally.

See also

• cloud-cuckoo-land

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Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English fantasy. Doublet of fantasie.

Noun

fantasy f

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from English fantasy. Doublet of fantaisie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɑ̃.ta.zi/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

fantasy f (plural fantasys)

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

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Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English fantasy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfan.ta.zɨ/, /fanˈta.zɨ/
• Rhymes: -azɨ
• Syllabification: fan‧ta‧sy

Noun

fantasy n (indeclinable)

1. (literature) fantasy (genre)

Adjective

fantasy (not comparable)

1. (relational) fantasy

Declension

Indeclinable.

Related terms

noun

• fantastyka

 

noun phrase

• fantastyka naukowa

 

adjectives

• fantastycznonaukowy
• fantastyczny

 

adverb

• fantastycznie

 

Further reading

• fantasy in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• fantasy in Polish dictionaries at PWN