fantasy

English

Wikipedia

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 show at the eye or the mind”), from φαίνω ‎(phaínō, “to show in light”), from the same root as φῶς ‎(phôs, “light”).

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.
   • Shakespeare

     Is not this something more than fantasy ?

   • Milton

     A thousand fantasies begin to throng into my memory.

2. (literature) The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and fictive medieval technology.
3. A fantastical design.
   • Hawthorne

     Embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread.

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

Related terms

• fantasize

Derived terms

• 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
• 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
• Finnish: fantasia (fi), fantasiakirjallisuus
• French: fantaisie (fr) f, fantasy (fr) f
• German: Fantasy (de) f

• Greek: φαντασία (el) f ‎(fantasía), λογοτεχνία του φανταστικού f ‎(logotechnía tou fantastikoú)
• Italian: fantasia (it) f
• Japanese: ファンタジー ‎(fantajī)
• Latin: somnium n, phantasia f
• 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 Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: fantasie (nl)
• Hungarian: fantázia (hu)

• Romanian: fantezie (ro) f
• Indonesian: fantasi (id)

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?)

   • Robynson (More's Utopia)

     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)