fantasma

Forms

fantasma m or f by sense or m (plural fantasmas)^[1] The 15th century also wrote fãtasma.^[2] Until the 20th-century reforms the word was also spelt phantasma: Feijó (1734) gives both spellings, and Figueiredo (1899) enters fantasma as the same as phantasma.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin phantasma (“apparition, ghost”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[2][5][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “apparition, vision, image”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to make visible”) and the suffix -μα (-ma).^[2][1][6]

The popular form of the same word is abantesma.^[2][6][1] The REW traces the popular form to a variant of the Latin word and lists Spanish fantasma and Italian fantasima beside the learned Portuguese word.^[7] French fantôme and Occitan fantauma go back instead to a southern form with ⟨au⟩, which the DHLF traces to an Ionian Greek variant brought in through Marseille.^[8][7]

Bluteau (1712–1728) derived the word from a Greek verb meaning “I imagine”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 14th century.^[2][5] The earliest record in Lorenzo's chronology is the Chronicle of 1344, which contrasts a dream or phantom with real people: ou aquello era sonho ou fantasma ... vos sodes homẽes humanaaes e nõ fantasmas “either that was a dream or a phantom … you are human men and not phantoms”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) glosses the word with Latin larva “ghost, spectre”.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as a figure that appears by magic, in a dream or through a weak imagination, and also, in philosophy, as the image of an object passed by the imagination to the soul.^[9] Morais (1789) gives it both genders and records the sense “an empty shadow”, as in a phantom of greatness.^[12]

In the 20th century it gained the senses “a very thin, pale person”, “a fictitious person whose name is used in fraud” and “a second, faint image on a television screen”.^[2][13] It also works as an adjective, “not real, only apparent”.^[14] In Brazil it is also the name of a fish, the cangulo.^[2]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2][5]
• 1344 – fantasma in the Chronicle of 1344.^[10]
• 15th century – the spelling fãtasma.^[2]
• c. 1446 – fantasma in the Vida de Santa Maria Egipcíaca, the earliest record in the CTA.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin larva.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the magical and the philosophical senses.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records it as masculine and feminine.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An illusion, an image without reality.^[2][16]
2. A frightening vision.^[2][16]
3. A ghost: the supposed appearance of a dead person or of their soul: Dizem que um fantasma assombra o castelo.^[2][16][1]
4. (figurative) A threat or fear that haunts someone: o fantasma do desemprego.^[2][17]
5. (figurative, humorous) A very thin or pale person.^[2][17]
6. (figurative) A fictitious person whose name is used in fraudulent operations.^[2][13]
7. (television) A faint second image beside the main one, caused by a poor signal.^[2][13]

Related words

• abantesma
• fantasia
• Latin phantasma
• French fantôme

Usage notes

Older authors also used the word as feminine: Morais and the old Aulete quote Nunca fantasma alguma amedrontar-te pode “never shall any phantom frighten you”.^[18][17] Placed after a noun it means “that exists only on paper”, as in empresa fantasma.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fantasma
3. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fantasma
4. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fantasma
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fantasma
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fantasma
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. phantasma
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fantôme
9. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fantasma
10. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fantasma
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fantasma
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 98
13. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. fantasma
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. fantasma
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fantasma
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fantasma
17. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. fantasma
18. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 1