Fantasticate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To create or elaborate upon imaginary or whimsical ideas with creative elaboration
2. To concoct fanciful notions or embellish stories with imaginative and fantastical elements
3. To devise or construct elaborate fictional scenarios through flights of fancy

Etymology: "Fantasticate" is a plain formation: the adjective "fantastic" with the verb-forming suffix "-ate," which in English comes from Latin "-atus" and turns adjectives and nouns into verbs meaning roughly "to make or become." "Fantastic" itself has a longer road behind it. It traces back through Middle French "fantastique" and Late Latin "phantasticus" to Ancient Greek "phantastikos," from "phantazein," meaning to make visible or present to the mind, which is a derivative of "phainein," to show or bring to light. The original sense was therefore about images and appearances in the mind rather than anything whimsical or excellent. The verb took the same route as many -ate formations: English speakers attached the suffix to an existing adjective whenever they needed a verb for making something a certain way. "Fantasticate" thus means to make something fantastic, and the core of its story is the older Greek idea of conjuring images before the mind.

Synonyms: fantasize, imagine