a. and sb. Forms: α. 4 fantastik, 5–7 fantastike, -tyke, -tique, -tyque, 6–8 phantastick(e, 7– fantastic. β. 6–8 phantastick(e, 6 phantastike, 7 phantastique. 7– phantastic. [ad. med.L. fantastic-us, late L. phantasticus, a. Gr. φανταστικός, f. φαντάζειν to make visible (middle voice φαντάζεσθαι, in late Gr. to imagine, have visions): see FANTASY. Cf. Fr. fantastique.
The form phantastic is no longer generally current, but has been casually used by a few writers of the 19th c., to suggest associations connected with the Gr. etymology.]
A. adj.
1. † a. Existing only in imagination; proceeding merely from imagination; fabulous, imaginary, unreal (obs.). b. In mod. use, of alleged reasons, fears, etc.: Perversely or irrationally imagined.
α. a. 1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 279. What is i-seide … of Merlyn his fantastik getynge. Ibid., VIII. 63. Kyng Arthures body [was founden] þat was i-counted as it were fantastik.
1529. More, Supplic. Soulys, Wks. 338/2. For he geueth god not a whit, but taketh in his heart that story told by god for a very fantastike fable.
1627. F. E., Hist. Edw. II. (1860), 11. His fantastique Happiness.
1711. Swift, The South-Sea, viii.
| With eager Haste he longs to rove | |
| In that fantastick Scene, and thinks | |
| It must be some enchanted Grove; | |
| An in he leaps, and down he sinks. |
1775. J. Harris, Philos. Arrangem., Wks. (1841), 299. A fourth sort, that may be called fantastic, or imaginary; such as centaurs, satyrs, sphinxes, hydras, &c.
1816. J. Wilson, The City of the Plague, I. i.
| Wilmot. I could smile | |
| At such fantastic terrors. |
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 157. His hearers and reporters were sure to verse it on their own fantastic grounds also.
β. 1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 481. All those other Phantastick Gods, were nothing but Several Personal Names, given to the Several Powers, Vertues, and Offices of the One Supreme.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., i. 94.
| What, tho’ my Soul phantastic Measures trod | |
| O’er Fairy Fields. |
† 2. Pertaining to, or of the nature of, a phantasm. Obs.
α. 1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 19/2. He shewed that he was veryly rysen … by etyng openly, and by no art fantastyke. Ibid. (1491), Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. xlii. 68 a/1. [I am] noo thynge fantastyque, but a sparcle of fyre; Asshes, and flesshe.
1598. Yong, Diana, 127. All, that she heard, and sawe there, was but a meere dreame, or some fantastick illusion.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, IV. iii.
| Are not we both mad, | |
| And is not this a phantastick House we are in, | |
| And all a Dream we do? |
1648. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 198. One will allow of his humanity, not his eternal deity;… another will allow a divine soul with a fantastick body.
β. 1635. A. Stafford, The Femall Glory (1869), 145. That He had a phantasticke Body, not made of his Mothers Flesh.
1691–8. Norris, Pract. Disc., IV. 377. Aery Banquets, Phantastick Food.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1741), VII. 16. An aerial phantastic body.
† 3. Of or pertaining to phantasy, in its various psychological senses (see FANTASY sb. 1, 4) as denoting either the faculty (and act) of apprehending sensible objects, or that of imagination; imaginative.
1483. Caxton, Cato, F viij b. By cogytacyon or thynkyng fantastyke and by illusyon of the deuyl, and suche dremys none may not be eschewed.
1592. Davies, Immort. Soul, XX. ii. (1599), 47.
| [Phantasie] in her Ballance doth their values trie, | |
| Where some things good, and som things il do seeme, | |
| And neutrall some, in her phantasticke eye. |
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Pref. ¶ 43. There is as much phantasticke pleasure in doing a spite, as in doing revenge.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 29. The different Phancies in us, caused by the respective Differences of them, in themselves. Which Phancies or Phantastick Idea’s are no Modes of the Bodies without us, but of that only in our selves which is Cogitative or Self-Active, that is, Incorporeal.
1793. T. Taylor, Sallust, viii. 38. The irrational soul therefore is sensitive and phantastic life; but the rational soul is that which rules over sense and phantasy, and uses reason in its energies.
† b. Of poetry: Concerned with ‘phantasy’ (Gr. φαντασία) or illusory appearance. Obs.
[See Plato, Sophistes, xxiii. li. In quot. 1581 the word may be merely a transliteration of Gr. φανταστική.]
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 54. Mans wit may make Poesie, (which should be Eikastike, which some learned haue defined, figuring foorth good things,) to be Phantastike: which doth contrariwise, infect the fancie with vnworthy obiects.
1660. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. i. 18. Phantastic Poesie is that, which altogether feigns things.
4. Of persons, their actions and attributes: † a. Having a lively imagination; imaginative (obs.). b. Fanciful, impulsive, capricious, arbitrary; also, foppish in attire. Now in stronger sense: Extravagantly fanciful, odd and irrational in behavior.
α. 1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., xix. 50. Whether he haue a sadde knowyng or felinge or elles a soden wytte or fantastyk.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. vii. 47.
| To be fantastique, may become a youth | |
| Of greater time then I shall shew to be. |
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., II. 1.
| Let no fantastique Reader now condemne | |
| Our homely Muse, for stooping unto them. |
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 577. There is an absolute necessity to study to know the Properties and Qualities of a man’s own individual and specifick Nature and Complexion, and not rely upon, and trust to the adulterated Medicines, ahd phantastick Directions of ignorant Physicians.
c. 1760. Smollett, Ode to Independence, 97.
| For him let venal bards disgrace the bay, | |
| And hireling minstrels wake the tinkling string; | |
| Her sensual snares let faithless pleasure lay; | |
| And jingling bells fantastic folly ring. |
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 317. This war minister, obliged in his old age to pledge the assembly in their civic cups, and to enter with a hoary head into all the fantastick vagaries of these juvenile politicians.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Montaigne, Wks. (Bohn), I. 350. Great believers are always reckoned infidels, impracticable, fantastic, atheistic, and really men of no account.
β. 1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, A iij b. He that talking of a young gentleman, shoulde say, that he was phantasticke, cholericke, amorous, arrogant, for all this he doth hym no wrong.
1701. Steele, Funeral, II. I have long lov’d you—bore with your Phantastick Humour through all its Mazes.
5. Arbitrarily devised. Now rare. Cf. FANCY a.
1658. Bramhall, Consecr. Bps., iii. 29. They say that Arch Bishop Parker and the rest of the Protestant Bishops … were consecrated … by a new phantastick forme.
1846. Trench, Mirac., i. (1862), 115. Phantastic and capricious miracles.
1876. Humphreys, Coin-Collector’s Manual, xxvi. 396. Occasionally, fantastic variations of well-known inscriptions occur, and it is supposed that the coins on which they are found were struck by the slaves employed in the mint during the Saturnalia.
6. Having the appearance of being devised by extravagant fancy; eccentric, quaint, or grotesque in design, conception, construction, or adornment.
α. 1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, III. 1077.
| Drusus, that fashion-imitating ape, | |
| Delights to follow each fantastique shape. |
1728. Young, Love of Fame, iii. Wks. (1757), I. 107.
| Behold the masquerade’s fantastic scene! | |
| The Legislature join’d with Drury-lane! |
1750. Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard, xxvi.
| There at the Foot of yonder nodding Beech | |
| That wreathes its old fantastic Roots so high, | |
| His listless Length at Noontide wou’d he stretch, | |
| And pore upon the Brook that babbles by. |
1841. Spalding, Italy and the Italian Islands, II. 221. Vaulted halls adorned with the usual fantastic arches.
1856. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, i. (1858), 30. The moment that the Arab traditions of Moses are examined in detail, they are too fantastic to be treated seriously.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875) I. vi. 109. The witch with fantastic gestures draws a circle and places mysterious articles therein.
β. 1618. Wither, Motto, Nec Curo. Each phantastique Garb our Gallants weare.
a. 1713. Ellwood, Autobiog. (1714), 254. Luff died in Prison (not without well-grounded Suspicion of being Murthered there) but Perrot lay there some time, and now and then sent over an Epistle to be Printed here, written in such an affected and phantastick Stile, as might have induced an indifferent Reader to believe, they had suited the place of his Confinement to his Condition.
b. Arbitrarily used by Milton for: Making ‘fantastic’ movements (in the dance); hence in later allusions to Milton’s phrase. So in Comb. fantastic-footed.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 33.
| Come, and trip it as you go | |
| On the light fantastic toe. |
a. 1790. Warton, On the Approach of Summer, 59. Haste thee, Nymph! and hand in hand, With thee lead a buxom band; Bring fantastic-footed Joy, With Sport, that yellow-tressed boy.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. xv. Mr. St. Ledger, who evidently prided himself as Mr. Fitzloom observed, ‘on his light fantastic toe.’
B. sb.
1. One who has fanciful ideas or indulges in wild notions. Obs. exc. arch.
α. 1598. Marston, Pygmal., III. 148.
| Thou art Bedlam mad, starke lunaticke, | |
| And glori’st to be counted a fantastick. |
1621. Quarles, Divine Poems, The History of Queen Ester (1717), 111.
| Even so the power from the Princes hand, | |
| Directs the subject with a sweet command, | |
| But to perverse fantasticks if conferr’d, | |
| Whom wealth, or blinded fortune hath preferr’d, | |
| It spurs on wrong, and makes the right retire, | |
| And sets the grumbling Common-wealth on fire. |
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv. (1715), I. vii. The Church-men justly growl to see … that the Force of Toleration … Should set each canting proud Fantastick Above their Courts Ecclesiastick.
1881. Shorthouse, John Inglesant, II. xv. 298. I thought I had met with a Fantastic, whose brain was turned with monkish fancies, and I blessed my fortunate stars that such had been the case.
β. 1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 3. I would be glad to weane this Phantasticke from a veine of lightnesse.
fig. 1675. G. R., trans. Le Grand’s Man Without Passion, 132. Opinion is the Fountain, this Fantastick which seduceth our understanding, etc.
† 2. One given to fine or showy dress; a fop. Obs.
a. 1613. Overbury, Charac., A Phantastique, An Improvident young Gallant.
1628. Milton, Vacation Exercise, 19.
| Not those new fangled toys, and trimming flight | |
| Which takes our late fantastics with delight. |
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 131. A Fantastic is one that wears his Feather on the Inside of his Head.
† 3. A fanciful composition. Obs.
1641. G. H. (title), Wits Recreations, Containing … Variety of Fancies and Fantasticks.
† 4. Power of fancy or imagination. Obs.
1764. Public Advertiser, 31 May, in N. & Q., 3rd Ser. IV. 385. It [Mozart’s playing] surmounts all Fantastic and Imagination.
