Phantasy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The faculty or activity of imagining things, especially those that are unrealistic or fanciful
2. A mental image or concept created by the mind that is not based on reality
3. An imaginative idea or notion formed without regard to practical or factual constraints

Etymology: "Phantasy" is simply an older spelling of "fantasy," and the two come from a Greek verb meaning "to make visible." That verb, "phantazō," was built on "phainō," "to show" or "bring to light," which shares a root with the Greek word for light, "phaos." So at its deepest level, imagining something was once a matter of making an image appear before the mind's eye. The Greek noun "phantasia" meant "apparition" or appearance, and Aristotle and later philosophers used it for the mind's capacity to form and hold mental images. Latin took the term as "phantasia," meaning imagination, and it passed into Old French as "fantasie." English borrowed it from there in the Middle Ages, and the spelling "phantasy" persisted for centuries alongside the shorter form before "fantasy" became standard. The word has two close relatives in English that were borrowed separately: "fancy," which came through Old French and shortened over time, and "fantasia," a musical term borrowed from Italian. These are doublets, words from the same source that reached English by different routes.

Synonyms: fantasy, imagination, dream, illusion, vision