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

imagining

• 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: haaveilu (fi)
• 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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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: เพ้อฝัน (th) (pə́ə-fǎn)

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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 with 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

Noun

fantasy f

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

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French

Noun

fantasy f (plural fantasys)

1. (literature) fantasy (literary genre)

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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

• Template:R:PWN