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fantasy

Etymology and origin of the English word fantasy

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1325
Borrowed from
Old French fantasie via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (φαντασία)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈfæn.tə.si/, US /ˈfæn.t̬ə.si/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fantasie, borrowed from Old French fantasie (“vision, imagination”),[2][3] from Latin phantasia,[2][3] from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía, “appearance, image, perception, imagination”),[2][3] from phantázesthai “to picture to oneself”, from phantós “visible”, from phaínesthai “to appear”,[2][3] related to phôs “light”,[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to shine”).[2] From the 16th to the 19th century the Latinized spelling phantasy was also used.[4][2] It is related to fancy, phantom and phenomenon.[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spectral apparition, an illusory appearance: about 1325 in the OED,[6] the early 14th century in Etymonline.[2] Barnhart has the use of the imagination about 1350.[3]

Semantic evolution

In scholastic psychology it was the faculty that apprehends objects of perception (before 1382).[6] A whimsical notion or illusion is from before 1400,[2][3] and imagination in general, especially extravagant imagination, from 1539.[3][2] The shortened form fancy took over many of the lighter senses.[3] A daydream arising from wishes is from 1926,[2][6] and fantasy as the name of a fiction genre by 1939.[2] The verb, to imagine, is from about 1430.[3][6] Fantasy football and similar games date from the 1980s.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1325 – an apparition, illusion.[6]
  • c. 1350 – the use of imagination.[3]
  • a. 1400 – a whimsical notion.[2][3]
  • c. 1430 – verb, to imagine.[3]
  • 1539 – extravagant imagination.[3]
  • 1926 – a wish-fulfilling daydream.[2][6]
  • 1939 – a fiction genre.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A pleasant situation that one imagines but that is unlikely to happen; a daydream.
  2. The power of creating things in the imagination.
  3. A genre of fiction with magic, imaginary worlds or supernatural events.
  4. An idea with no basis in reality.

Verb

  1. To imagine or fantasize.

Word family

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Fantasy.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/fantasy. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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