fancy

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun something many people believe that is false
  2. noun a kind of imagination that was held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than true imagination
  3. noun a predisposition to like something

Etymology

From Middle English fansy, fantsy, a contraction of fantasy, fantasye, fantasie, from Old French fantasie, from Medieval Latin fantasia, from Late Latin phantasia (“an idea, notion, fancy, phantasm”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to render visible”), from φαντός (phantós, “visible”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to make visible”); from the same root as φάος (pháos, “light”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti, from the root *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of fantasia, fantasy, phantasia, and phantasy.

In classic literature

Synonyms

illusion, fantasy, phantasy

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