rare–1. Short for IGNIS FATUUS.
a. 1668. Denham, The Progress of Learning, 159.
| And when that flame finds combustible earth, | |
| Thence fatuus fires and meteors take their birth. |
1820. A. Cottle, Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron, 174, in J. Cottle, Early Recollect. (1837), I. 121.
| Were powers, to stir the passions, such as thine, | |
| A wit so subtile, fancies so divine, | |
| Entrusted to corrupt, and turn aside | |
| Whoe’er may take thy fatuus for a guide? |
