fantastique

Forms

fantastique (plural fantastiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin phantasticus (“imaginary, unreal”), also written fantasticus,^[2][3][4][5] which is from Ancient Greek φανταστικός (phantastikós, “able to form images, imagining illusory things”),^[1][3] from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to imagine”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to appear”).^[3][5] It belongs to the same family as fantaisie.^[3][4]

Cognate with Old Occitan fantastic, Spanish fantástico and Italian fantastico.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nicole Oresme uses it about 1361 of things that exist only in the imagination;^[5][7][6] the TLFi also quotes a manuscript of the Légende dorée from the second half of the 14th century in the sense “created by the imagination, not existing in reality”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Because the products of the imagination were seen as departures from reason, the word also meant “mad, insane”: a document of 1392 describes a man as lunatic ou par aucuns intervalles fantastic, and Calvin uses it as a noun for a madman (1536).^[2][3][8] It also meant “whimsical, chimerical” until the 17th century;^[4] the alteration fantasque (1575) was formed after it.^[4]

By extension it qualified what seems imaginary or has a strange appearance (1580, Montaigne).^[3][5] The noun le fantastique, what exists only in the imagination, is recorded in 1738 (Piron), and in 1821 Charles Nodier used it for a literary genre built on the extraordinary and the breaking of the recognised order of the world, later extended to film.^[2][3] The everyday sense “astonishing, incredible”, and its use as an intensifier, date from the 19th century (1833, Michelet).^[3][5]

Timeline

• c. 1361 – Oresme uses it for imaginary things.^[5][7]
• 1392 – Fantastic “mad” in a document of the Archives nationales.^[2][8]
• 1536 – Calvin uses it as a noun for a madman.^[2][3]
• 1575 – The altered form fantasque appears.^[4]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for what seems imaginary or strange.^[3][5]
• 1738 – Piron uses le fantastique for what exists only in the imagination.^[2]
• 1821 – Nodier uses it as the name of a literary genre.^[2][3]
• 1833 – Michelet uses it for “astonishing, incredible”.^[3][5]
• 1859 – Recorded of works in which the supernatural dominates.^[9][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Created by the imagination, not existing in reality: Les dragons sont des bêtes fantastiques.^[9][10][1]
2. (literature, film, art) In which the supernatural dominates: conte fantastique, film fantastique.^[9][1][6]
3. Seeming unreal; strange, extraordinary.^[9][2]
4. (familiar) Amazing, incredible, great: c'est fantastique.^[3][6][5]
5. (dated) Of a person: given to fancy and chimeras.^[2][5]

Noun

1. Le fantastique: what exists only in the imagination; the inexplicable.^[11][2]
2. The fantastic genre in literature and film, marked by the intrusion of the supernatural into a realistic setting.^[1][11][3]

Word family

• fantastiquement

Related words

• fantasque
• fantaisie
• fantôme

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)