Etymology Noun inherited from Middle English fantasie, from Old French fantasie (“fantasy”), from Latin phantasia (“imagination”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía, “apparition”), 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 fancy, fantasia, phantasia, and phantasy. Verb from Middle English fantasien, from Old French fantasier. Doublet of fancy.
1
That which comes from one's imagination or the act of imagining things.
Is not this something more than fantasy?c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, London, act 1, scene 1:
A thousand fantasies / Begin to throng into my memory.1634, John Milton, Comus:
2 more examples
The whole position was so tremendous and so absolutely unearthly, that I believe it actually lulled our sense of terror, but to this hour I often see it in my dreams, and at its mere phantasy wake up covered with cold sweat.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
Try as hard as it can, empirical science cannot come up with a naturalistic explanation; it can only slip into fantasies that make scientists feel good because they are in harmony with their opinions, prejudices, and unconscious assumptions about the nature of reality.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 92:
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Literature, Media, Publishing The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and the supernatural, imaginary worlds and creatures, etc.
3
A fantastical design.
Embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 7, in The Scarlet Letter:
Etymology Noun inherited from Middle English fantasie, from Old French fantasie (“fantasy”), from Latin phantasia (“imagination”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía, “apparition”), 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 fancy, fantasia, phantasia, and phantasy. Verb from Middle English fantasien, from Old French fantasier. Doublet of fancy.
Instead of phantasying marriage, she actually feels that she is already married to the man of her phantasy.1946, A. A. Brill, Lectures on Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, Alfred Knopf, page 127:
Perhaps I would be able to help him recapture the well-being and emotional closeness he fantasied his brother had experienced with his parents prior to his birth.2013, Mark J. Blechner, Hope and Mortality: Psychodynamic Approaches to AIDS and HIV:
3
To conceive mentally; to imagine.
Firſt I phantaſied that if I liſt to take vpon me the crowne and imperiall Scepter of the realme, now was the time propice and conuenient.1569, Richard Grafton, “Richarde the Thirde”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC, page 816:
4
Obsolete To have a fancy for; to be pleased with; to like.
Which he doth most fantasy.1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC:
The kyng fantasied so much his daughter Anne that almost everything began to grow out of frame and good order1641, George Cavendish, Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe: