fancy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A liking or desire for something.

   He took a fancy to the jacket in the window.

2. 2
   noun

   A sudden wish or idea, often not very serious.

   I had a fancy to learn to play the flute.

3. 3
   noun

   The power of the mind to imagine things.

   The strange shapes were just creations of his fancy.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Fancy arose in late Middle English as a contracted form of fantasy. It therefore shares the Greek-derived history of fantasy and fantastic, associated with visions and things formed in the imagination.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary