[ad. med.L. phantasta, Gr. φανταστής, agent-n. f. φαντάζειν, φαντάζεσθαι. In Gr. the word meant (in accordance with the primary sense of the active verb) ‘an ostentatious person, boaster’: see next. Cf. Ger. fantast, phantast, which is the source of the modern use.]
1. A visionary, a dreamer; a flighty, impulsive person.
1588. J. H[arvey], Disc. Probl., 128. O vain Phantasts and fond Dotterels!
1804. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1836), II. 413. A quiet and sublime enthusiast with a strong tinge of the fantast.
1855. Lewes, Goethe (1864), 494. She is one of those phantasts to whom everything seems permitted.
2. A fantastic writer; one who aims at eccentricity of style.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. English, 151. The study after singularity of expression is, moreover, a weakness which soon betrays itself. Nor is this all. It fails of its end; and a disciplined taste recoils from fantasts and contortionists like Mr. Carlyle, Archbishop Trench, and Mr. Browning, with just the sort of feeling provoked by the antics of a clever buffoon.
