Dreamy

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈdɹiː.mi/

Definitions

1. Pleasantly distracting or vague in manner, or pleasingly romantic and imaginative in quality
2. Having a soft, gentle, or wistful quality that evokes a sense of fantasy or unreality
3. Characterized by a tranquil or otherworldly appearance, often suggesting an escape from the practical and mundane

Etymology: "Dreamy" is about as plain as English etymology gets: the noun "dream" with the suffix "-y", which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "full of" or "characterised by" the noun. A dreamy afternoon is one that feels like a dream, and a dreamy voice is soft and unhurried, as if half-asleep. The suffix is ancient in English, descending from Old English "-ig", and it has been attached to all sorts of nouns since then, so "dreamy" belongs to a large family of ordinary words like "misty", "sleepy" and "cloudy". The noun "dream" itself came into English as a word for joy or music before it came to mean a sequence of images during sleep, a shift that the adjective quietly carries with it.

Synonyms: drowsy, whimsical, fantastical

Antonyms: alert, realistic, practical