Fancy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Robert Burton's ingenious treatise is a curiously wrought-out design. There are idle students and cavillers, who have advertised Burton as the creator of a peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" --Anatomy of Bibliomania (1930) by Holbrook Jackson |
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Fancy is an English word which arose in late Middle English as a contraction of fantasy. It stems from Old French and Early French fantasie, itself from the Late Latin fantasia, which originated from the Greek Phantazein (phan. to render visible). Related words include diaphanous (transparent), epiphany (manifestation).
Noun
- The imagination; an imagined image.
- A whim.
- Love or amorous attachment.
- Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
- The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
Adjective
- Decorative, or featuring decorations, especially intricate or diverse ones.
- Of a superior grade.
- Executed with skill.
- Extravagant; above real value.
The noun Fancy can usually still be replaced with the older word fantasy without any change of meaning.
See also
