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

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæntəsi/, /ˈfæntəzi/

• 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.

Derived terms

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

 

Related terms

• fantasize

Translations

that which comes from one's imagination

• Bulgarian: въображе́ние (bg) n (vǎobražénie), фанта́зия (bg) f (fantázija)
• Catalan: fantasia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 幻想 (zh) (huànxiǎng)

• Danish: fantasi c
• Dutch: fantasie (nl)
• Esperanto: fantazio (eo)
• Finnish: kuvittelu (fi), kuvitelma, mielikuva
• French: fantaisie (fr) f, imaginaire (fr) m, fantasme (fr) m
• German: Fantasie (de) f
• 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)
• Korean: 환상 (ko) (hwansang)
• Latin: somnium n
• Persian: فانتزی‎ (fa) (fântezi)
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Romanian: fantezie (ro) f
• Russian: фанта́зия (ru) f (fantázija), воображе́ние (ru) n (voobražénije)
• Slovene: fantazija f
• Spanish: fantasia f
• Swedish: fantasi (sv) c
• Thai: ความเพ้อฝัน (th), การฝันเฟื่อง (th)

literary genre

• Bulgarian: фе́нтази n (féntazi)
• 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)
• Italian: fantasy (it) m
• Japanese: ファンタジー (fantajī)
• Persian: فانتزی‎ (fa) (fântezi)
• Polish: fantasy (pl) n
• Portuguese: fantasia (pt) f
• Russian: фанта́стика (ru) f (fantástika), фэ́нтези (ru) n (fɛ́ntɛzi)
• Slovene: fantastika f, fantazija f
• Swahili: fantasia
• Swedish: fantasy (sv)
• Thai: แฟนตาซี, จินตนิมิต (th)

fantastical design

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

• Finnish: gamma

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.

   (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.

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

See also

• cloud-cuckoo-land

---

Czech

Noun

fantasy f

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

---

French

Noun

fantasy f (plural fantasys)

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

---

Polish

Etymology

From English fantasy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fanˈta.zɨ/

Noun

fantasy n (indeclinable)

1. (literature) fantasy (genre)

Adjective

fantasy

1. fantastical (of or pertaining to fantasy)

Declension

Indeclinable.

Related terms

• (noun) fantastyka
• (adjective) fantastyczny

Further reading

• fantasy in Polish dictionaries at PWN