Etymologically
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fantastico

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Pronunciation

  • /fanˈtas.ti.ko/[1]

Forms

fantastico (feminine fantastica, masculine plural fantastici, feminine plural fantastiche)[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin phantasticus (“imaginary”), from Ancient Greek φανταστικός (phantastikós), which DELI derives from φαντασία (phantasía), the source of fantasia.[2][3][1] Zingarelli and Gabrielli trace the Greek adjective to the verb φαντάζω (phantázō, “I show, make visible”).[4][5] DEI notes that the Late Latin word is found in Cassiodorus, and compares French fantastique, recorded from the 14th century, and the separate French formation fantasque (Gerson, 15th century, Montaigne, 1580).[6]

The modern hyperbolic sense “wonderful” owes something to French: GDLI says the French adjective influenced it, and Sabatini–Coletti says that sense came through French.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, who died in 1292, with the sense “belonging to the imagination”.[2] GRADIT dates the word to the second half of the 13th century.[3] The TLIO's first quotation is from Armannino's Fiorita of 1325, and its earliest senses are “unreal, imaginary, immaterial” and “endowed with supernatural powers”.[9]

Semantic evolution

In medieval and Renaissance psychology virtù fantastica was the faculty of imagination, which the TLIO describes as the part of the brain that reworks memory into images.[9] GDLI quotes Boccaccio on the dream images that fortune set “davanti alla virtù fantastica, la quale il sonno non lega” (before the imaginative power, which sleep does not bind).[7] The TLIO also records the word for what is false or deceptive, the product of imagination as opposed to reason, and for a person who is out of their mind or eccentric.[9] DEI dates the sense “odd, peculiar” to the 14th century and “whimsical, singular” to the 16th.[6] Manzoni still uses it of a moody person.[3][10]

The sense “incredible” is recorded before 1748 in Pietro Giannone.[2] The colloquial “splendid, magnificent” is first recorded in Panzini's dictionary of 1935, which remarked that anything at all could now be called fantastico, fruit or a dish of ossobuco included.[2][8] As a noun, il fantastico is the realm of the imagination, and especially of fantastic literature.[3][10] English took fantastico as a noun for an absurdly behaving person in 1597, and German uses it as a musical direction.[11]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses fantastico of the imagination.[2]
  • 1325 – Armannino's Fiorita has the word for what is unreal.[9]
  • 1354 – Iacopo Passavanti uses the verb fantasticare.[2]
  • 14th century – The sense “odd, eccentric” appears.[6]
  • Before 1546 – Pietro Aretino uses fantasticheria.[2]
  • 1597 – English fantastico “an absurd person” is recorded.[11]
  • Before 1748 – Pietro Giannone uses the word for “incredible”.[2]
  • 1935 – Panzini records the colloquial sense “splendid”.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the imagination; created by the imagination, imaginary: un paese fantastico abitato da draghi.[3][10][12]
  2. (by extension) Hard to believe, incredible.[3][2]
  3. (hyperbolic) wonderful, splendid, extraordinary; also used alone as an exclamation of delight: Abbiamo passato una serata fantastica.[3][10][8]
  4. Rich in imagination, imaginative.[3][4]
  5. Belonging to the literature of the fantastic: un romanzo fantastico.[3][10]
  6. (literary) Of a person, moody, whimsical, eccentric.[3][10][4]

Noun

  1. (singular only) The realm of the imagination; what seems unreal or extraordinary: una vicenda che ha del fantastico.[3][10][12]
  2. (heraldry) A monster made of the parts of different animals.[3][1]

Word family

  • fantasticare
  • fantasticheria
  • fantasticamente

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1595
  7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 652
  8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana